


Mischief Loves Company

by Illusinia



Series: More Than She Seems [4]
Category: The Avengers (2012), Thor (2011)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-06
Updated: 2012-10-28
Packaged: 2017-11-07 00:38:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 28,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/424988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illusinia/pseuds/Illusinia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An old friend of Darcy's returns after years away. Chaos ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Shrine

**Author's Note:**

> Originally this story interwove with a few other stories that were posted separately as one-shots. Because this whole series is still coming together a little between stories, the gaps between the actual pieces posted as one series of chapters may seem weird but were left with the idea in mind that eventually everything could become one long thing. If there's a bit of unusual POV stuff, that's why. Everything should work relatively well though.

A series of cracks echoed around the mostly moved into space, all of which came from Darcy's spine as she stood from hunching over a box of assorted stuff. Though everything had been packed by her personally, some of the boxes were old ones from storage which she'd finally picked up given she was moving into an actual apartment in New York City rather than a dorm room at UNM. She'd been forced to move with the rest of Jane's team to the city following Thor's return. In fact, the whole S.H.I.E.L.D. operation in New Mexico had pretty much been moved at this point. She was the last to arrive, needing an extra month to actually finish her degree and pack up her dorm.

 

Now, she stood in the middle of the living room of her new one-bedroom apartment in one of the large apartment buildings around S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. Though she'd been offered housing on the base, it had seemed more prudent and less personally invasive to live in one of the nearby buildings. Jane had readily agreed and gotten an apartment on the same floor for herself and Thor, who also had rooms at S.H.I.E.L.D. but who everyone knew would be staying with Jane the majority of the time. Steve Rogers, one of the other Avengers, lived in the building somewhere as well but Darcy didn't care much about where. The man struck her as beyond strange, even for someone from the 1940's. Soldiers from any time were _never_ that polite.

 

Cracking her back again, Darcy moved to where one of the last boxes she had to unpack was stashed by a bookshelf. This was one of the boxes from her parent's house and she wasn't honestly sure what was in it. It said 'Books' on the outside, but she knew there were a few boxes that had been intentionally mislabeled, mostly to keep her parents out of her business when she'd still been keeping things at their home.

 

Opening the box, she was met with what looked like a bunch of stacked books which she knew immediately to be a fake lid. Those same books were already on the shelf behind her. The lid was gone in moments, carefully unlatched for potential future use, leaving her face to face with a box of stuff from high school.

 

Most of it looked like junk, notebooks and the like, but Darcy knew better. Flipping open the top one, she was faced with a page filled with Norse runes, one of the many ways she'd encoded her notebooks in high school to avoid nosy digging. When translated, the notebook would read like a pranksters wet dream: a list of various pranks and the means to execute them. Though she rarely used the same prank twice (that was boring and Darcy prided herself on her creativity), she did design her pranks on paper along with anything she built to actually execute the prank. Those devices could be reused over and over again. Smiling at the words written on the page (her mind immediately translated the language which had become almost second nature so many years ago), Darcy set the notebook aside for later perusal and moved aside a textbook on power calculations she'd 'edited' to pull out an old frame from the bottom.

 

Several pictures were displayed inside, about five in total. All of the photos were of at least two of the same three individuals, two girls and a boy, in various combinations and poses. Most portrayed only a young Darcy and another dark-haired girl with conniving brown eyes and a wicked smile, but two photos also featured a young boy with black hair, pale skin, and sharp green eyes. One was a group shot, with all three of the participants clearly up to no good and covered in paint. It had been one of their few failed pranks as a group, but they'd laughed about it later. The other was a photo of just Darcy and the boy, with Darcy practically laying in his lab sound asleep, and the boy's head settled back against the couch top, also asleep. A faint laugh bubbled up from Darcy's throat as she traced the boy's image.  _Those were the times..._

 

Setting aside the frame on one of the bookshelves, Darcy pulled a large shoebox from inside next. Opening it, a true smile bloomed across her face. Inside sat a partially burned candle green with runes carved in the outside, a shallow dish with traces of ash, and a small statue of a blue man with a horned helmet, long sorcerer's robes, and bright red eyes. Grinning, she lifted the statue from the box and stroked her fingers over the figure.  _My shrine to Loki. I wondered where it went._

 

The smile stayed in place as Darcy carefully set up the shrine on a small side table next to the bookshelf. When she'd arranged everything properly, Darcy stood back to admire the small dedication before a mischievous smirk worked its way over her features.  _Oh why not..._

 

Retrieving a lighter from her purse, Darcy knelt before the shrine and lit the candle, speaking the opening Norse she'd learned so many years ago before stating her request. Despite how many years it had been since she'd done this, the words flowed easily and her soul felt lighter when she'd finished. Maybe, just maybe, finding this box was a sign. She hadn't gotten up to much mischief in the last few years, but perhaps it was time to change that. After all, it was the best way to stretch her mind, and everyone needed a good laugh now and then...

 


	2. When Darcy Remeets Loki

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy remeets an old friend.

 

_They're here._ Loki couldn't help the smirk which slipped over his lips as he looked on at the hidden headquarters for S.H.I.E.L.D., home to the Avengers and his brother. The only individuals who would try to stop him from controlling this world. And he knew exactly where they were.

 

The glee was almost overwhelming as he began to go through everything he could do to those inside the building before him. Most of his thoughts were prank-like, his usual fare, but several were far more malicious. Those were less fun but certainly more practical in some ways.

 

“Loki?”

 

Nearly a whisper, definitely said on a gasp, the sound of his name caused the God of Mischief to spin rather suddenly and nearly topple over as he did.  _How undignified. And who on this damn planet would be capable of recognizing_ me _?_ His answer came quickly enough. 

 

Barely had he regained his balance when he was again almost knocked to the ground, except this time it was by a body. A body flinging itself at him. Rather hard. A body with voluminous chocolate brown hair and pale skin clad in a heavy uni-sex sweatshirt and wearing thick-rimmed glasses...

 

“Darcy?” whispered Loki, the shock nearly rending him speechless.

 

The brunette lifted her head with a megawatt smile, Darcy's excitement just barely contained. He'd seen her like this many times years ago; it was the same look she sometimes got when a particularly complex prank went off without a hitch and they had gotten away sans punishment. It was a smile he had come to lo-  _adore_ . A similar smile broke across Loki's own face as his arms came around the girl who had practically tackled him and he gave her a strong hug.

 

“Darcy,” murmured Loki as he closed his eyes. For the moment, all thoughts of S.H.I.E.L.D and world domination disappeared. It had truly been too long since he'd seen Darcy, though he'd frequently checked in on her without her knowledge. His eyes slid open again as he began to speak “What are you doing here? The last I heard, you were studying in New Mexico.” He wouldn't mention he'd seen her briefly when the Destroyer had attacked. Or that he'd commanded the Destroyer to keep her safe should things go badly. Beating Thor would never be worth Darcy's life in his mind.

 

Darcy nodded her head, the smile not leaving her face as she leaned back enough to look Loki in the eyes. “I did an internship over the summer and my employer offered me a permanent position as her assistant. The internship was the last thing I needed to get my degree, so I accepted and have been working for her ever since.”

 

“Assistant?” questioned Loki, forcing his heart to stop pounding. He could only hope she hadn't been working for Jane Foster. “With your mind? Shouldn't you be in research? You were always amazingly talented with electrical devices.”

 

A look of unease and sadness crossed Darcy's face and she took a bit of a step back. “Some things changed.”

 

The sudden loss of joy shocked Loki, especially the depth of her pain. “Darcy? What happened?”

 

One of his hands rose to cup her cheek so he could look at her eyes. It wasn't meant as a romantic gesture, just a comforting touch between friends. Yes. That's exactly what it was. Never mind that some of the thoughts going through his head were definitely not friendly.  _There was a reason you left._

 

Darcy took a deep breath to calm her emotions and shook her head, raising a hand to take the one covering her cheek. “That isn't a story to tell in public. Come on, let's go to my apartment. I can make some coffee and we can catch up.”

 

Loki just nodded and allowed her to take his elbow, walking beside her with linked arms to her building in silence. Her apartment was only a few blocks away and the silence was the comfortable kind held between two people who know each other well.  _Though it is unclear how well I really know Darcy anymore._

 

Stepping into the darkened apartment, Loki noticed with amusement that Darcy didn't flip on any lights upon entering. She had always had amazing night vision, a trait which helped when they were sneaking around for their pranks. He didn't need the light himself, and thus made no move to turn any on. Instead, he moved to sit on the sofa placed in the middle of the room, lounging back casually. Darcy appeared not a moment later and the sound of water running through a coffee maker echoed from the kitchen where she'd disappeared.

 

“Lets wait for coffee,” she advised with a faint smile. “We'll need it, or at least I will. I'd make something stronger, but I don't have any alcohol on hand.”

 

Loki nodded, remembering Darcy's coffee addiction all too well. He'd had the misfortune of meeting her one morning when coffee hadn't been available for consumption. There were some things that could frighten even a god, and a caffeine deprived Darcy was one of those things. Reaching out, he drew her towards him on the couch, seeking the familiar feeling he'd been missing for the last five years.

 

When her head came to rest on his shoulder, with her body tucked under his arm, Loki felt himself relax. “So what have you done beyond gaining employment, even if the value of it is questionable? Any mischief worth reporting?”

 

Darcy giggled some and shook her head. “I wish. My only accomplishment is that I have everyone at work convinced I'm some air-headed ditz to the point where I could probably pull off any prank I wanted to and never be suspected. Except by my boss's boss. I figured out recently that he definitely knows how smart I am and I  _fully_ intend to get him back for attempting to abuse that information. And one of the guys in another department, but I think he'd probably just laugh and roll with it. Maybe even get involved if I asked him to. He's pretty chill, though he's a perverted narcissistic genius.”

 

Loki chuckled. “And how do you intend to take revenge on your boss's boss?”

 

“I'm thinking electricity,” snickered Darcy. “Maybe some well-placed shorts or something of that nature. I found my calculations book again recently, so I'll probably pull something out of there.” Shaking her head, Darcy leaned back so she could look up at Loki's face, her head nearly laying in his lap in the process. “What about you? Last I heard you were in Scandinavia, so what are you doing in New York City?”

 

“I am interviewing for a job,” lied Loki quickly. He definitely would not drag Darcy into his current mischief. The last thing he could stand would be something happening to her. She and Dani were the only two Midgardians Loki had ever been able to tolerate well. At least that he'd met. “Actually, the man interviewing me just informed me today that I have the job, so I am apartment shopping.”

 

Darcy just laughed. “Well then, congratulations and say no more, you're welcome to stay here for as long as you like.”

 

Loki's mind swiftly ground to a stop before a litany of  _no, no, no, no_ sounded through his head. There was no possible way he could stay with Darcy. Not with the chaos he was aiming to start. 

 

_Or can I?_

 

He wouldn't lie, he had missed his chaos-producing prankster friend. The fact that he bestowed the title of Goddess of Mischief on her was not a coincidence or undeserved. If she had his magical abilities, well, to say that she could cause unrivaled chaos was an understatement. But he knew that was also symbolic of his unnamed feelings for this strange woman. Digressing.

 

Staying with Darcy would be entertaining. He could easily fall back into their old friendship and perhaps even have a way to relax at the end of the day. Being around someone who accepts one of the key aspects of who you are is intoxicating and to give that up would be foolish.

 

But then there was S.H.I.E.L.D., a powerful group he was about to seriously aggravate. The last thing he wanted to do was make Darcy a target for them. That was unacceptable. But what could he do? He knew Darcy was stubborn and didn't take no for an answer. At least not often and certainly without some serious force. And when it came to her friends, Darcy definitely didn't play around. Rejecting her would be nearly impossible, at least without hurting her.

 

Plus something was definitely off with her. The joy and mischief that used to surround her was almost completely gone, leaving a partially hollowed shell that was almost unnerving. He definitely had to fix that. After all, that was what friends were for. Or so he was told. His own experience with friends was pretty much limited to Darcy and Dani on Midgard and the Warriors three, Sif, and Thor on Asgard. And those two groups were so radically different it was hard to give them the same label.

 

A click from the kitchen indicated that the coffee was done and Darcy rose to retrieve two cups. She was back in less than a minute and handing Loki a cup prepared just the way he liked it. That she remembered brought a smile to Loki's face and reaffirmed that Darcy definitely represented more of a friend by common definition than any of his Asgardian associates had.

 

She resettled at his side, cuddled close once again except this time it felt like she did so for comfort rather than out of an interest in just being close. And this time, Loki brought his arm down to hold her loosely. A show of solidarity.

 

“So, you asked what happened earlier,” muttered Darcy with a sigh, her eyes straying to a small ceramic pot sitting on the table in front of them. It was surrounded by little trinkets and fake flowers, with a little candle set in front of everything. The candle had been burned almost to a nub and would need to be replaced soon.

 

Loki nodded, tightening his grip a little. “Yes. I would hate to have to go to Dani to find out. You know I despise second-hand information. It feels too much like gossip for my own tastes.”

 

Beside him, Darcy hiccuped a little, the sound resembling a suppressed sob. Loki's eyes immediately shot down to look at her. “Darcy?”

 

“Dani died Loki,” blurted out Darcy with little ceremony.

 

Loki's stomach lurched before dropping harshly. Being a god, he'd always accepted that Darcy and Dani would die eventually. He had to. But knowing that one of the two mortals he considered friends had met her end so young, and from Darcy's reaction abruptly, sickened Loki in a way he couldn't even begin to fathom. “What happened?”

 

“It was an explosion in a chem lab,” whispered Darcy, her face pressed into the crook of his neck. “She was in a beginning chem class she should never have been in. One of her classmates was doing something stupid and accidentally created an unstable explosive compound. Being the brave idiot she was, she pushed him out of the way and got caught by the explosion.” At this point Darcy's voice broke, but Loki didn't need to hear any more.

 

His eyes strayed to the pot on the table, which he now recognized as a small urn. It was too small to fit all of Dani's ashes inside, but he guessed a part of them were securely kept there where she could remain close to one of her dearest friends. Subtly, he flicked his wrist and lit the candle with magic. A tribute to his lost friend. He would need to get a proper candle for her, one of the candles like those they used in Asgard to represent their own dead. A mourning candle.

 

Silently, Loki wrapped his arms tightly around Darcy, shifting so she was laying on his chest, and allowed her to shed her tears. His own began to fall not a moment later, and together the two friends mourned the loss of one of their own.

 

Thirty minutes later, Loki and Darcy simply lay on the couch, watching the candle burn. It was soothing in some ways, seeing the fire dance in such a controlled manner. However, Loki had other things on his mind. “Darcy, is Dani the reason you are merely an assistant now?”

 

Darcy nodded slowly. “After she died, I lost all interest in pursuing engineering. It wouldn't have been fun without Dani there to help me prank the teachers or freak out our classmates.” A faint smile covered her lips. “Plus I could never create as good of a smoke bomb.”

 

Loki chuckled. “Dani  _did_ make the best smoke bombs.”

 

Silence descended again for a little bit before Loki asked his next question. “Is she why you have stopped playing tricks?”

 

She nodded against his chest. “I could never completely stop playing pranks,” pointed out Darcy with a bit of a chuckle. “Dani'd probably come back to haunt me if I did. But I haven't had the energy or drive to do anything amazing in a long time.”

 

Loki snorted. “We will have to fix that. But not tonight. It is late and you need sleep to function.”

 

“So do you,” pointed out Darcy as she lifted her face to meet Loki's eyes. “But you're right, its late and we need sleep. And food. How does home-made fried rice sound?”

 

“Your home-made fried rice?” confirmed Loki with a smile. Darcy nodded. “Do you even need to ask?”

 

Darcy just laughed and stood from the couch, moving to the kitchen with Loki following behind after he blew out the candle with a small prayer. He would bring the new candle tomorrow. However, as he was turning away, a small display caught his eye.

 

Moving over to the table set beside a bookshelf, he examined the small collection of items present. His eyes fell on the shallow dish with its ashen residue, the candle carved with runes baring his name, and the small statue resembling his appearance as the ancient Norse people had viewed him. It was a strange display. Especially because the candle had clearly been lit recently. The whole thing had a shrine-like feel.

 

“Darcy, what is this?” asked Loki casually, though a strange combination of warmth, delight, and unease was flooding his body. 

 

Darcy stuck her head back out from the kitchen. “Oh, that's my shrine to Loki, God of Mischief. He's pretty much my patron god.”

 

Loki raised an eyebrow casually at her, trying to keep his unease from blossoming into full-scale panic. “I thought you were Christian.”

 

“Kinda,” replied Darcy as she slipped back into the kitchen to keep doing whatever it was she did to make her fried rice. “My parents are and I suppose technically I am, but it's always seemed kinda hard to believe in. Especially because we can do so much with our technology and yet we can't find any trace of magic. Well, excepting with you because I swear some of the stuff you've done qualifies as magic.”

 

Loki cleared his throat uneasily and ignored her comment. “So why the shrine to Loki?”

 

Darcy's laugh rang through the room. “Make you nervous? I know he has your name, but you have nothing to do with that shrine. Dani and I each had one and we had already built and used them before we met you.”

 

“Really?” questioned Loki as a nagging memory began to pull at the back of his mind. One of words whispering in the darkness, speaking his name in the Norse tongue. “Do you use a traditional Norse prayer too?”

 

“Yep!” replied Darcy. The grin was audible in her voice. “We learned the whole language so we could use a proper prayer. Don't know how much good it does, but we figured it couldn't hurt.”

 

Loki nodded slowly as he moved into the kitchen with her. “What do you pray for?”

 

“Different things,” answered Darcy with a shrug. “Ideas for pranks, success with pranks, protection...”

 

“Protection?” questioned Loki. “From the God of Mischief?”

 

Darcy nodded as she flipped on the stove and started to pour stuff into the pan. “Yeah, think about it. I'm a prankster by nature, so who else would I ask for protection from? If anyone is going to listen, it'll probably be Loki and I'd rather be protected by someone creative than someone who's only got one way to handle things.”

 

Loki blinked as he tried to think that one through. “Can you please explain that logic?”

 

“You can be threatened by more than physical violence,” explained Darcy. “Blackmail, intimidation...those are threats that really shouldn't be handled through physical force. So I'd rather have someone on my side who knows how to handle things subtly and without beating someone to a pulp. And Loki is definitely that god.”

 

“You really believe that?” whispered Loki in awe. He had never heard someone praise his abilities like that before, and definitely never heard someone speak of his conniving nature in a positive light. _I forgot how amazing Darcy is._

 

Darcy smiled softly at Loki, her eyes alight with confidence in her words. “Completely. Something tells me that Loki would never abandon someone who believes in him. Besides, he brought you to me and Dani, so he can't be all bad.”

 

Loki nearly choked. “Pardon?”

 

“Well, you showed up in just enough time to save Dani and I from getting into trouble when our prank went sideways, and the night before we'd prayed for protection from punishment should we fail,” explained Darcy. “And we did. Spectacularly. But you were there, and you saved us from injury, thus protecting us.”

 

“I can see how that would lead you to the conclusions you drew,” muttered Loki.

 

Darcy just nodded and shifted the pan containing their fried rice onto an unused burner before grabbing bowls and handing one to Loki. “Now come on, enough talking about me. I want to hear about Scandinavia.”

 

So they spent the next hour talking and eating, with Loki relating some of the more ingenious pranks he'd pulled off in the years since they'd last met without going into detail concerning how he'd pulled off the pranks and lying about the locations. He was just getting ready to launch into the tale of how he'd convinced his older brother that he was invincible after doing a stupid dance when Darcy let out a soft yawn. She tried to cover it with her hand but Loki saw through the act immediately.

 

“You should go to bed,” he advised softly. “Clearly you're exhausted.”

 

Darcy shook her head. “No, I want you to finish your story.”

 

“Darcy...”  


She sighed heavily. “Fine, I guess it is kinda late. So where do you want to sleep tonight? The bed or the sofa?”

 

Loki snorted. “I would think the sofa would be the obvious choice. You are the one who needs to be up early tomorrow. My own work will not start for several days still.”

 

Darcy shrugged, but eyed the small space before shaking her head. “Nope, sorry. That answer doesn't work. There is no way you'll fit on the sofa.”

 

“Yet, I refuse to allow you to give up your bed,” insisted Loki firmly.

 

“So share it with me,” replied Darcy with a shrug as she headed into her bedroom.

 

Loki's jaw was almost on the floor. “I believe I just misheard you.”

 

“Not likely,” called back Darcy. “You have impeccable hearing. Besides, we've done it before.”

 

“When we were in high school,” pointed out Loki. “And it was all three of us, never just two!”

 

Darcy's rich laugh reached his ears and she stuck her head around the doorway, clearly halfway naked even though Loki couldn't see past the top of her shoulders. “What, are you afraid I'll jump you?”

 

Loki huffed as a light blush spread over his cheeks. “It is not your behavior I am concerned with.”

 

Darcy laughed again and disappeared back into her room. “Come on dude. If you were gonna jump me you would have in high school. Besides, we always managed to behave back then and we had plenty of opportunities to do sexy, naughty things.”

 

“You have a point,” muttered Loki with a sigh. “This is one of those arguments where you will refuse to admit defeat, is it not?”

 

“Yep!” shouted Darcy just before the sound of a door shutting echoed out of the room.

  
Loki just sighed and shook his head, stripping down to a set of boxer's he magicked onto his body. She wouldn't let him leave that night and he knew it. He'd have to magic up some fake luggage and clothing as well, to make it at least look like he'd been staying in a hotel.

 

Darcy emerged a moment later in thin flannel pants and a loose t-shirt, proclaiming 'I left my marbles in my other head'. It was so her that Loki couldn't keep the smile off his face.

 

“What?” asked Darcy with a huff.

 

"That shirt is completely you,” replied Loki with a grin.

 

She just shook her head. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Quit stalling and get in bed before I hog tie you and throw you in there.”

 

Loki shook his head with a sniff. “As if you could.”

 

“Don't tempt me,” growled Darcy playfully as she pushed him down onto the mattress.

 

He quickly crawled in, moving close to the wall and allowing Darcy to slide in beside him. A few moments of awkwardness ensued as each attempted to become comfortable in the space until they finally settled in with Darcy's head on Loki's shoulder and one of his arms wrapped around her lower back.

 

They'd fallen asleep like this before, back in high school, and never thought anything of it. Sure, others had accused them of dating, but they'd just ignored everyone else. Dani was the only one who never said anything, though the smile that crossed her face sometimes when Loki did or said certain things told him that she clearly knew more than she let on. It had been Dani that made Loki realize he was too attached to Darcy and sent him fleeing their little group. Now, he wished he hadn't left. Maybe then he could have saved Dani or at least been there for Darcy...

 

_That's in the past. When you rule this realm, you'll make sure Darcy is always happy and safe. You don't have to loose her._ Unconsciously, Loki's arm tightened around Darcy, who protested lightly but said nothing more as she slipped into deep sleep.  _I will not allow anyone to hurt her. Not ever again._


	3. Pranks, Computers, and Missing Calculation Books

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And the chaos begins...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this chapter doesn't move the story along much, just gives an impression of what Darcy knows. Also, can anyone guess who's prank this is? (It isn't hard, promise...). Hopefully this will be funnier than the last chapter.
> 
> Again, I don't own these characters, they are solely being used for the entertainment of myself and others and no money is being made on this project.
> 
> -Illusinia

 

Darcy wasn't quite sure what to make of the scene before her. S.H.I.E.L.D agents were running around like headless chickens, panicking as if their world were ending. Which it might well have been for all Darcy knew. It wasn't like anyone would tell her anything. They all over-looked her, which is exactly how she preferred it.

 

Looking around, Darcy quickly learned what it was that had everyone on their toes and couldn't help the laugh that fell from her lips. Maybe she should have been more concerned, but the whole thing was identical to a prank she'd pulled in high school.

 

Every computer in the room displayed the same message: “I will rule you”. It changed through a rainbow of colors and dripped like a caustic acid, but none of the screens would display anything else beyond that one message. And apparently it was enough to scare every S.H.I.E.L.D agent in the building half out of their mind. Not that her teachers hadn't freaked out too, but at least they'd had the sense to realize it was a student prank. Apparently S.H.I.E.L.D didn't have a “How to Identify a Prank” training course.

 

Heading to Jane's lab, she found Jane frantically trying to get her own computer up and running, the same message playing through on her screen just like every other screen in the building. Thor was no where to be found and Darcy was willing to bet that he was in a meeting with the other Avengers. Which meant no one would be stopping by to check on them. Good.

 

“Hey boss lady, what's shaking?” asked Darcy mildly as she set down her stuff and flipped on her own computer. Predictably, her own screen flipped over to display the same image as all the other computers. Smirking, she unplugged the network connection to her computer and watched the message disappear to display her desktop.

 

Behind her, Jane gasped. “How did you do that!”

 

Darcy just started to laugh. “A prankster doesn't reveal their own tricks or the tricks of another, however I can fix your computer for you if you want.”

 

“So, you know how someone did this?” queried Jane as she moved back to allow Darcy access to her own computer.

 

“Yep,” replied Darcy. “I actually played this exact prank in high school. It causes some panic but nothing major. At least, so long as they don't include Dani's part. That might cause major mayhem.”

 

Jane blinked in confusion. “Who's Dani?”

 

“Was,” corrected Darcy with a touch of bitterness in her voice. “She was the Goddess of Mayhem. At least, according to our friend Lo- _Luki_.”

 

“Luki?” Jane raised an eyebrow in slight disbelief. “What kind of a name is Luki?”

 

“Scandinavian according to him,” replied Darcy mildly. “Hence the names Goddess of Mayhem and Goddess of Mischief. He had been given the title God of Mischief years earlier and proved to us that the title was earned, so we allowed him to keep it.”

 

Jane just gave her a strange look. “You have some unusual friends.”

 

Darcy shrugged as she stood up from the computer. “All the better to play pranks with. You're computer is fixed.”

 

“Thanks,” muttered Jane. “You should go fix the other computers as well.”

 

“Hell no,” growled Darcy. “Fury will just demand I tell him how its done and I take the Prankster Code of Ethics very seriously. Tricks and pranks were my life for years, are part of my blood still. There is no way in hell I'm going to undo another pranksters work on a large scale. S.H.I.E.L.D will figure it out eventually and seeing them panic for a bit will be entertaining. Besides, it'll do them some good to realize they aren't invincible and whoever pulled this off deserves major props. Its practically a work of art.”

 

Jane just looked at her like she'd grown another head. “That is simultaneously the most cohesive thing I've ever heard you say and the strangest.”

 

Darcy shrugged and sat back at her own computer. “What can I say, I'm a paradox within a person.”

 

They fell into silence after that, working on their own various tasks. Darcy found herself facing pages of e-mails from S.H.I.E.L.D demanding progress reports, status updates, and a few from associates of Jane's requesting some of her older research articles for reference purposes. Jane was writing out calculations and attempting to determine the best way to turn their current one-way wormhole into a two-way transporter. It was almost two hours later that either woman decided to break from their work, with Darcy heading over to the break-room to both survey the damage done from their new enemy's little prank and to retrieve some coffee. Jane just lay down on the couch with her eyes closed to clear her head.

 

Outside the office, everything was still in chaos and people were running around left and right attempting to get everything operational again. The same message was still looping through on every screen in the building excepting the ones in Jane's Lab. Apparently the computer techs at S.H.I.E.L.D were as brainless as Darcy suspected they might be.

 

In the break room, Darcy found Tony with his head laying on his arm and an empty coffee cup in his hand. The narcissistic genius looked ready to fall over from exhaustion. And the fact that he was clinging to the empty coffee cup like it actually had something in it made Darcy feel for the poor man. He looked like he'd been up all night.

 

“What's wrong Stark, Fury driving you like a slave again?” asked Darcy as she filled her own cup with the goodness that was coffee.

 

Tony just groaned. “I've been up all night trying to fix this damn computer thing. How the fuck did someone pull this off?”

 

Darcy snorted. “Seriously? How stupid are you guys?”

 

Immediately, Tony's head shot off his arm and he growled, even as Darcy refilled his coffee mug. “Oh what, and you know how to fix this?”

 

“Actually, yes,” replied Darcy with a smirk. “I've already fixed the computers in Jane's lab.”

 

Tony's eyes looked ready to fall out of his head. “You're serious.”

 

“As Fury when pissed.” Darcy could feel Tony's eyes drilling into the back of her head as she poured sugar into her own coffee. “It isn't nice to stare.”

 

“Hard not to when the resident non-genius genius says they know how to fix a problem that the entire technical staff of S.H.I.E.L.D has spent almost twelve hours working on,” shot back Tony. He proceeded to nearly chug the coffee Darcy had just poured him, much to her disgust. S.H.I.E.L.D coffee was the worst swill she'd ever drank. 

 

“So you want a clue on how to fix this then?” offered Darcy mildly.

 

Tony snorted. “I want to know how to fix it. And how someone did this in the first place.”

 

Darcy shook her head. “Sorry. Like I told Jane earlier, that's against the Prankster Code of Ethics. I can, however, give you a clue on how to fix it.”

 

A strange look crossed Tony's face, some combination of amusement, respect, and irritation which Darcy couldn't name but didn't feel compelled to analyze. As long as he didn't tell Fury, she didn't care. “Also, you have to promise to take full credit for this and not tell Fury a thing about my involvement.”

 

“Done,” was all Tony said. “Now spill.”

 

Darcy nodded and sat down across from Tony, leaning forward to ensure that no one else could hear. “There will be program on one of the network servers which is taking control of all computers linked to the server and looping that message across them. You have to find and disable it. It'll be small in size and unobtrusive, maybe even going so far as to mimic another program on the server in name or size. Finding it could take a while.”

 

Tony nodded slowly. “Will disconnecting the computers from the server at least allow access to the computers?”

 

“Yeah,” replied Darcy mildly. “That's how I fixed the computers in Jane's lab, kinda.”

 

“Kinda?” asked Tony with a raised eyebrow.

 

Darcy nodded. “I activated a security protocol which disables the server's access to the computer but not the computer's access to the server, essentially making the computer invisible to the server.”

 

“And that worked?” Clearly, Tony was still having some trouble with the whole genius thing.

 

“Of course,” replied Darcy mildly. “Look, just find and disable the program and you're good to go. Now, I gotta jet. Good luck.”

 

She was at the door when Tony spoke again. “Thanks.”

 

Darcy smiled slightly and looked back at Tony, nodding before wondering back to Jane's office. Jane was already back at work and Darcy settled in to do her own thing until the door opened thirty minutes later and Tony came strolling in. He quickly shut the door behind him then grinned at Darcy. Jane had stepped out not too long ago to check on Thor.

 

“Since you're computers are already fixed, I'm just gonna hid in here for a few minutes from Fury and pretend like I'm working,” explained Tony mildly as he strolled over to drop onto Jane's couch.

 

“Charming,” commented Darcy sarcastically. “Glad we could help you dodge work.”

 

Tony just shrugged. “I also figured that allowing some random tech to come in and find your computers fixed might break our little agreement.”

 

Darcy just nodded.

 

“I'm just glad Fury is done yelling at me for the time being,” stated Tony firmly. “He's a real pain in the ass.”

 

“Which is why I don't want him to know that I know anything about this,” explained Darcy. “Otherwise he'd be calling me up every time they even suspected that someone was messing with the servers or I'd be blamed every time a server went down.”

 

Tony raised an eyebrow at her casually. “You do know he ran a background check on you when you joined S.H.I.E.L.D right?”

 

Darcy nodded. “I also know what's in those background checks and how many things I've done which can't be linked back to me in any manner, shape, or form. There's stuff about me that isn't available in any kind of background check that Fury could ever do.”

 

“Good to know,” muttered Tony. “Gotta say, I'm feeling a little scared right now.”

 

“As you should,” replied Darcy with a mischievous grin. “But don't worry, I like you well enough for now that I'm not likely to target you. Keep your eyes on Fury though, he's not safe. Plus, he provides such entertaining responses...”

 

Tony's eyes looked ready to fall out of his head. “You're insane!”

 

Darcy just grinned at him. “No, I'm just the Goddess of Mischief.”

 

“Don't let anyone else hear you call yourself that, it'll cause trouble,” advised Tony with a snort.

 

“Please, the only reason I told you is that you're enough of a trouble maker to join me in any mischief I choose to create,” explained Darcy. “Or at least roll with it and not tell anyone who was responsible.”

 

“True enough,” muttered Tony as he stood up. “That being said, I need to go back to running around like a headless chicken before Fury storms in here and starts to yell at me.”

 

Darcy just nodded. “Jane should be back soon anyway, unless she dragged Thor into a closet somewhere.”

 

Tony just made a face. “Yeah...oh hey, Fury gave orders to end the workday early due to this computer fiasco. You can duck out any time, and I'd recommend doing so now before he catches you here and makes you stay for the remainder of the day.”

 

Darcy grinned. “Say no more, I'm on my way out.”

 

Tony nodded and ducked back into the mostly empty halls as Darcy started to grab her stuff. She was out the door not five minutes later.

 

It wasn't until she reached into her bag for her keys that she realized she'd left her advanced power calculations book on her desk...

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erik just made a very bad enemy...
> 
> Alternatively: why you should never steal from a genius who's friends with the God of Mischief.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is another installment to the 'more-than-she-appears' series. Erik really shouldn't try to play games with Darcy. There will be a sequel to this one, posted as a revenge chapter or single somewhere. Originally, this chapter was a stand-alone piece from the same series that I linked in when writing Mischief Loves Company.
> 
> As I've said before, these characters aren't mine. I'm merely borrowing them for my amusement and the amusement of others.
> 
> -Illusinia

Erik Selvig prided himself on his ability to _not_ loose his very important books necessary for his research. He always knew where they were, every last one. And so help the poor soul who misplaced or moved anything from where it lay. Which was exactly why he was tearing his lab apart in frustration at the moment.

 

One of his books had gone missing.

 

Specifically, he was missing his book on advanced power calculations related to adapting power for various needs and machinery. Something he needed for his research on the damn cube. And it was missing. MIA. Untraceable. Eaten by the servants of Hel!

 

Erik stopped at the last one and shook his head. He'd been associating with Darcy too much. The girl was amusing, if taken in small doses, but she was more than likely a few marbles short of a full set.

 

Returning his mind to the problem at hand, Erik stormed from his lab, frightening several interns and other scientists who were scurrying around the area. He glared at each of them and watched everyone scatter. Remaining focused on his mission, Erik began to mentally go through every place his book might be located besides where it was supposed to be. He knew it wasn't in his rooms. There were no books in that space at present, as all he did in there was sleep, and sometimes not even that. He had a cot in his lab for a reason after all. Hell, he should probably just move into his lab. His thoughts began to stray to kitchen installations, before the rational portion of his mind took over again. Definitely too much time with Darcy.

 

Heading towards Jane's lab, Erik hoped he had left the book there or that perhaps Jane had borrowed it. Entering the space, with its book covered tables, blackboards filled with equations, and various star charts strewn about, Erik spotted the book he wanted almost immediately. On Darcy's desk.  
  


Annoyance filled him as he snatched up the book and a lecture he could give Darcy on respecting property came to mind.

 

Then he opened the book.

 

And felt his fury rise.

 

The pages of the book were covered in notes and comments, scribbled in a rainbow of pens of every kind and color: from gel to ball-point, from red to neon green to black. And everything in between. All in Darcy's eccentric handwriting. The book was hardly legible. Erik was beyond furious.

 

Angrily, he flipped to the front page of the book and felt himself freeze. There, written on the front page, were the words 'Property of DL'. Darcy Lewis.

 

_Darcy?!?_ _What would she be doing with an advanced book on power calculations?_

 

Again, Erik opened the book and peered closer at some of the notes. There were pages where parts of calculations were crossed out and replaced with other equations. Notations on how to improve on what the book said. Comments on skipping or eliminating whole steps and portions of equations based on the needs of the equipment it was powering. In the back, he even found some notes on potential ways to remote power equipment and transferring power through wireless means between two supplies.

 

Erik felt his jaw drop. He was floored. Somehow, a stool ended up beneath him, which was good because his head was spinning. Darcy, happy, silly, oblivious Darcy, was making corrections to a science book. An advanced science book. On power supplies.

 

_I must be hallucinating. There has to be a logical reason for this. The girl can barely string together a coherent sentence sometimes. She makes inappropriate popular culture references whenever she can. Sure, she's not a complete idiot, but she isn't a genius either...is she?_

 

Slowly, Erik's mind began working again and he started to really consider what he'd heard Darcy say in the past. The way she spoke had always struck him as off, like her mind was working faster than she could speak. Her comments often came at a time when everyone was trying to think through a problem, and for a moment Erik considered the possibility that Darcy wasn't goofing off like everyone always assumed but that she had already  _solved_ the problem and was bored waiting for everyone else to catch up. But was it possible that Darcy could be  _that_ smart and actually  _hide_ it?

 

_Of course she could._

 

If Darcy really was a genius or even just nearly genius enough to come up with the stuff Erik was reading now, she could figure out how to hide the fact that she was a genius. The question was,  _why_ would she hide it? What possible advantage could she have?

 

Erik's thoughts were interrupted rather abruptly when Darcy entered the room casually, her normal look of disinterest plastered across her face. Her eyes landed on him almost immediately as she headed for her desk, catching sight of the book in his hands. However, she gave no reaction and instead shot him a grin.

 

“Hey Erik, what's up?” Her voice was completely casual, lacking any tones of concern or fear.

 

“Hello Darcy,” greeted Erik mildly, his hands moving slightly over the book he held. _Maybe I can smoke her out. If she's really as intelligent as this book suggests, we need to know so she can help us. With her on our side, we could harness the power from the cube in no time._ “Sorry to intrude, I was just looking for my copy of  Advanced Mathematical Calculations for Power Systems. It seems to have gone missing, have you seen it?”

 

Darcy shook her head calmly. “Nope. Did you talk to Stark? He's the kinda guy who would borrow a book like that and totally forget to return it.”

 

Tony Stark hadn't even crossed Erik's mind earlier and he would be sure to talk to him later. Even though the copy of the book in his hands was probably more advanced, with all of the random notes and the like written in the book, it was illegible to him. He still needed his own copy back.

 

“No, I didn't think to ask Stark, though if he has borrowed it I probably won't get the book back,” replied Erik. “I found another copy though, which I can always use until I get mine back.”

 

Still no sign of agitation from Darcy.  _ The girl has some poker face. _

 

“Actually, I need that book back,” commented Darcy casually. “I found it when I was unpacking some boxes and brought it in as a second copy for reference but Jane said it's useless and told me to get rid of it.”

 

Erik nodded. “So when did you take an advanced electrical engineering class?”

 

“I didn't,” corrected Darcy. “It belonged to a friend who was into that stuff. She moved away years ago and forgot the book at my apartment when she did.”

 

“Really?” questioned Erik with a raised eyebrow. “It says property of DL in the front cover.”

 

“Her name was Dahlila Lorance,” explained Darcy. “It was part of why we were friends. Dahlila and Darcy sounded cool together.”

 

Internally, Erik felt his face fall. Her explanation sounded ridiculous, but it was  _ possible _ that the book belonged to another person with the same initials.  _ Its Darcy's handwriting though. THAT I can recognize. _

 

Visibly, Erik nodded. “So why do you still have it?”

 

“She put a lot of work into correcting it,” explained Darcy. “I always meant to give it back to her. She died a few years ago in a car crash though, and seeing it makes me sad so I thought I'd leave it here. Tossing it seemed like a waste.”

 

_ This girl is a really good liar. If I didn't recognize the handwriting, I might actually buy this story. _ Erik nodded again. “Well then, if you don't mind, I'd like to borrow this book until I can find a copy of my own.”  _ Take the bait... _

 

Darcy just shrugged. “Go head, but I don't think its that useful. She really did a number on some of the pages.”

 

“I can read the pages I need,” replied Erik. Hopefully dropping the clue that he'd read the book already would smoke her out.

 

Again, Darcy gave no outward sign of discomfort. “Whatever.”

 

Forcing a smile as she again rebuked his attempts to trick her into admitting the book belonged to her, Erik stood and nodded before heading out the door. Once in the hall, he mulled back over Darcy's story and shook his head while heading to his own lab. Maybe the book wasn't hers. She had just let him walk out with it after all, and some of these calculations were very advanced. If it were him, he never would have allowed someone to steal his research like that.  _ Maybe it really isn't hers... _

 

Back inside Jane's lab, Darcy was mentally cursing up a storm.

 

_Shit, shit, shit, shit on Schrodinger’s Cat! Erik has my book! He's looked inside! I am SO boned if he doesn't believe that bullshit I just spewed. I mean really, a dead friend with my same initials? What the fuck are the statistical chances of THAT happening?!? Next to nothing, that's what! Damn it, damn it, damn it! For someone with a shrine to the Norse God of Mischief, I'm a crappy-ass liar._

 

Taking a deep breath, Darcy snatched up one of the notebooks off her desk at random. Unlike her calculations book, which she had  _ just _ found again too, her notebooks were all written in code to avoid being read. If anyone looked at it, the stuff would look like gibberish with partially finished sentences here and there along with some random sketches between pages. Not like anyone would really try to decode her notebooks, but still...

 

_ Damnit, I need to get that book back! _ An annoyed huff left her as she turned to leave the room again. She'd come back for her calculations book which she'd realized had been left behind earlier. Apparently the same one that Erik needed. The memory of Erik's line of questioning caused Darcy's eyes to narrow for a moment before a mischievous smirk slid across her face and she straightened up significantly. If Erik wanted to play, she would play. And Darcy always played to win.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I said, there is a sequel to this coming which will be significantly more fun than this story. It will be called Darcy's Revenge: Erik and should be posted up as soon as I get around to editing everything else.


	5. Darcy's Angry, Loki Schemes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy is mad. But that's okay, because Loki has a plan. Also, enter Avengers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I finally got around to editing chapter 5 (originally 4). Just a heads up to anyone wanting to read this thing straight through: the original posting of this is over on ff.net under the same title. I'm editing these a little as I go but I haven't added any new content or changed any of the story drastically.

It was only 3:30 pm when Darcy came storming into her apartment, rage rolling off her in waves so strong Loki almost ran for cover. Until he remembered he was a god that is. Still, angry Darcy is scary Darcy. And scary Darcy is scary for some very good reasons....

 

Of course, Loki knew she wouldn't hurt him. Well, he hoped she wouldn't. With Darcy it really was very hard to say what she would do. And he hadn't seen her this mad in a very long time. Plus she could be extremely creative when she wanted to be. And even if he was a god, knives hurt...Still, she was his friend and it was part of his duty to see that she didn't kill anyone. At least not without his assistance. A good friend is sitting with you in jail and all that.

 

With a heavy sigh, he heaved himself from the couch and moved to intercept his pissed friend. It had been almost five years since he'd last faced her temper. Somehow in the last two weeks he'd been sharing an apartment with her, said tempter had been elusive. Much to his relief. He'd only pissed her off once before in their time as friends, learning in the process that no amount of god power could ever make an angry Darcy any less intimidating. She could probably find a way to negate his magic if she really wanted to. _Thankfully she's usually so chipper it isn't a concern..._

 

Popping his head into the kitchen where she'd retreated, he almost fled again when he noticed what she was making. The ingredients on the counter were for her power-punch cookies, so named because she put enough chile powder, cayenne pepper, and paprika into the mix to melt most people's tongues off. Then she added chocolate to make them look like chocolate chip cookies and laughed when people ate them. It was an old trick of hers, though she could actually eat the cookies herself and not suffer any ill effects. Loki could eat them too, but the spice was a bit much for him. Apparently, Darcy's grandmother had been from Louisiana, so her tolerance for spice was incredibly high.

 

Muttered words of English and what sounded like a few other languages caught Loki's ears and he felt his fear rack up a notch. She was certainly cursing someone out rather forcefully and colorfully. That was bad. It wasn't uncommon for Darcy to curse someone out, but she was somewhat self-conscious about her language skills, much as she was about her intelligence. For someone to piss her off to the point that she would allow her language to go so unchecked....

 

_Maybe I should hide...no, I can calm her down. Chocolate. Chocolate will do the trick. Or a distraction. Should I ask what happened? It might be worth it..._

 

“Darcy?” Loki was careful to keep his voice calm. “Why are you home so early?”

 

Darcy growled slightly and spun to face him, a scowl on his face even as she huffed out a pissed-sounding sigh. “Someone at work stole my calculations book!”

 

Loki paled. Stealing something so precious as one of her note filled books would seal your doom. “How did they even find your calculations book?”

 

“I was flipping through it on one of my breaks and left it on my desk by accident when I left,” explained Darcy. “I went back for it and one of my boss's colleagues was examining it. He all but attempted to blackmail me into admitting the book was mine before taking it. I think he's trying to prove something. Beats me what that something is, though.”

 

“Perhaps he stole it out of jealousy?” suggested Loki. “Which book was it?”

 

“The one with my calculations for the wireless energy transference.”

 

Loki felt himself pale even more. “That certainly is bad. But I do not understand what would distract you so much that you would forget such a precious book.”

 

“I don't get what he was doing snooping around on my desk to begin with!” Darcy was still growling. “And I forgot it because one of my coworkers came in and basically told me that our boss had cleared us out early because of a prank that shut down most of the facilities computer access.” A grin spread across Darcy's face slowly. “It was a great prank. Someone basically mimicked our high school one where we planted a computer program to take control of all the computers in the school.”

 

Loki felt his whole body stiffen. “The one reading-”

 

“ 'We Rule This School – The Gods of Mischief and Mayhem',” finished Darcy with a grin. “The very same. It was awesome. Everyone was running around like scared chickens about to be butchered.”

 

_That's one way to think about them_ thought Loki, his panic still running high. “Well that certainly sounds exciting.”

 

Darcy nodded. “It was. The whole thing was beautifully executed and amazingly well planned and the ensuing chaos was awesome. I wish you could have seen it. You would have fallen over laughing.”

 

Pride swelled in Loki's chest at his friend's praise. It was hard not to preen a little at her words. “That does sound like fun.”

 

“You didn't have something to do with that, did you?” joked Darcy.

 

Her words were teasing but for a moment Loki really did fear she knew the truth. Never would Loki underestimate Darcy's ability to figure something out; with her, assumption a dangerous path to walk down. _Of course, if I'd know she works for S.H.I.E.L.D then I would have used a less recognizable prank._

 

That thought triggered a harsh realization. _She works for S.H.I.E.L.D. She's directly in my line of fire! What if they already know she's my friend? What if they're using her unwittingly as bait? NO!_ Loki firmly calmed his racing mind, forcing himself to think rationally. _They can't know she's my friend. They may know about our little group from high school but they have no reason to suspect I was anything other than a normal kid who move to Scandinavia years ago. I never revealed to anyone who I actually was._ With his mind reassured, Loki was able to grin at Darcy. “Wouldn't you like to know?”

 

Darcy just laughed. “If you had something to do with that, I would hope you'd tell me. After all, that way I could video tape the whole thing.”

 

Loki grinned. “I would hope you'd video tape the whole thing anyway. That way you could improve on it.”

 

“I haven't done something like that in such a long time, I doubt there are many improvements I could make,” pointed out Darcy, her voice a touch wistful. “Mostly if I want a laugh, I make my cookies.”

 

His smile fell and he shook his head. “We have got to fix that...” his grin slowly returned as a though occurred to him. “I have it. Darcy, we are going on a prankster date.”

 

The confused look on Darcy's face was nearly priceless. “A prankster date?”

 

Loki nodded firmly. “Yes. Now, are you free this Friday?”

 

Darcy nodded slowly. “Yeah...”

 

“Good,” stated Loki with a grin. “It's a date then. Be sure that you're ready on Friday at 7:30. You will need to be dressed in your 'prankster ninja' outfit.”

 

“I don't know if it still fits,” muttered Darcy.

 

Loki looked her over with an appraising eye. “I'm certain it does. You have not changed significantly since high school.”

 

Darcy blushed slightly under his scrutiny. “Anything else I need to do?”

 

“Just start thinking about pranks,” assured Loki. “I will do the rest.”

 

_\--------------_

 

Three days later, the aforementioned Friday came around and Loki had everything set up for their night out. His smile was practically ear to ear as he considered everything he had planned. Nothing to could ruin their night.

 

Now, leaving a flower shop with a rather unusual bloom he'd found therein, known as a passion flower which he felt would be perfect for Darcy, his confidence was at its peek. Yes, the flower may seem a little presumptuous and certainly a bit forward, but he'd done things such as this before and Darcy had always laughed it off. Taking back that persona was a necessary part of his plan to reignite Darcy's inner prankster. Memories were what was holding her back, so by creating similar but different memories he hoped to free the mischief he found so appealing.

 

“Brother!” the shocked cry from behind Loki caused him to freeze momentarily before he swiftly and skillfully spun to examine where the voice came from. The flower rested lightly in his hands as he took in the scene behind him.

 

Thor stood in the middle of the street, shock evident on his face as well as the faces of his three companions. One he recognized as Jane Foster, his brothers mortal lover, who Thor had pushed behind him. Beside him stood two men he recognized as two of the Avengers, Tony Stark and Steve Rodgers.

 

“Hello Thor,” greeted Loki calmly as he took in the looks all aimed at him. All of the Avengers seemed to be on guard, though he wasn't sure any of them were actually armed or capable of harming him in their current states. “Fancy meeting you here.”

 

Thor's jaw worked up an down slightly before he seemed to pull enough brain cells together to actually form a sentence. “What are you doing here, brother?”

 

Loki raised an eyebrow calmly. “Purchasing a flower. Why?”

 

Tony Stark made a bit of a face. “That seems a little mundane. Well, unless you're going to genetically mutate it to spit acid or something.”

 

“Why would I do that?” questioned Loki with a strange look at Stark. “It would be unable to serve its intended purpose.”

 

“Intended purpose?” Steve Rodgers growled. “And what would that be?”

 

Loki blinked at the man as if he were insane. “As a gift, of course. Does one not typically bring a lady flowers when accompanying them some place?”

 

The looks of shock and absolute confusion which covered every Avenger's face were priceless and Loki wished momentarily that he had a camera to capture the image. Several jaws attempted to move but none successfully managed to form any words. Eventually, Loki could not suppress at least a mild chuckle. However, a glimpse at a clock inside the flower shop told him he needed to hurry.

 

“Well, as lovely as this meeting has been, I'm afraid I must be going,” excused Loki with a sigh. “It is not polite to keep a lady waiting.”

 

With that, Loki disappeared, teleporting himself to Darcy's front door. Knocking, he couldn't suppress his smile when she opened the door dressed in all black clothing which was just fitted enough not to get in her way and nice enough to pass as a regular outfit. Taking her hand, he bowed as he often had when they were younger and presented her with the flower.

  
“A flower for a beautiful lady.”

 

Darcy laughed at his antics, carefully taking the flower and examining the unusual bloom. He had been told it was a desert flower that was significantly more resilient than most of the other delicate blooms the small shop had carried.

 

“So what mischief do you have planned for tonight?” asked Darcy as she ducked inside with the flower to find a vase quickly.

 

Loki grinned as she reemerged a moment later with her customary black jacket. Again, he took her hand and lead her out of the apartment building. “You will just have to wait and see.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what does Loki have planned? Their little mischief date will be up next! A word of warning, the next chapter may take a bit more time. Also:
> 
> I AM NOT A PRANKSTER BY NATURE!
> 
> If anyone has ANY pranks they would like to see these two pull off or any suggestions, I welcome them. Thanks!


	6. Restaurants, Games, and Breakins

The restaurant he chose to begin their night was a moderate place serving decent food without requiring a stringent dress code. Inside, the lights were dimmer and candles were scattered around the room in a practical manner rather than a romantic one. Tables littered the middle of the room and booths lined the side with signs representing various aspects of British culture or figures scattered around.

Beside Loki, Darcy was grinning widely. “You remembered!”

Loki chuckled. “Its a little hard to forget that you love good British fare.”

“True,” mused Darcy. “I guess I did use to cook a lot of it.”

“Still do,” pointed out Loki. “You made fish and chips the other night. And Shepard’s pie last week.”

Darcy hummed happily as a waitress led them to a booth in the corner. It was sequestered away from everyone else but gave both of them a good view of the rest of the room. Loki slid into the middle of the booth, then motioned for Darcy to slide in next to him with the crook of a finger. She did so with a raised eyebrow, then turned to look at the rest of the room as he slid an arm around her lower back. To anyone on the outside, they would look like any normal couple. The perfect cover.

“So what's your plan for the night?” asked Darcy casually as she examined the menu the waitress had given her. “And please explain to me how one of these 'prank dates' works.”

Loki scanned his own with limited interest before flipping over his menu and pushing it away. “We are going revive the trickster in you by spending tonight playing pranks and games of mischief.”

Darcy's head came to rest on Loki's shoulder as she flipped over her own menu and leaned back. “Such as?”

He had to forcefully slow his heart beat as her head rested on his shoulder. So, perhaps close contact was a bit difficult to handle and shouldn't be initiated. There was a reason he was always first up in the morning. “We are going to start here, with a few rounds of prankpinion.”

The grin that split across Darcy's face as she raised her head enough to look at him made his heart melt. Not good, not good...oh shut up brain. I already know this isn't good. I simply do not care anymore. “Should I take your smile as a sign of approval?”

“I haven't played prankpinion in so many years it's criminal!” whispered Darcy excitedly.

“Then I chose a good opening game,” whispered back Loki. “However, we are going to do this a little differently than normal. I am going to choose the marks, and you will state first what you would do if you were going to prank them.”

Darcy's brow furrowed in confusion. “Why do you get to choose all the marks?”

“Because I am not the one who has lost their inner trickster,” replied Loki with a soft smile. “You can choose some marks as well, but in a bit. For now, let me choose them.”

“Fine,” huffed Darcy playfully. “I doubt I could choose good ones anyway.”

Loki just nodded before glancing around the room to choose a target for their little game. He knew Darcy loved to play pranks, but she wasn't malicious by nature so her preferred targets were those who had tormented someone else. Though it was doubtful there were any bullies around, her favorite targets in high school, perhaps someone equally nasty could be found. Some noise from one of the tables in the middle of the room highlighted the perfect individual.

“See that man there?” murmured Loki, careful to keep his voice down. “The one in the suit?”

“Who just shouted at that poor waiter?” muttered back Darcy. “Yeah.”

Loki smirked. Perfect. “What would you do to him if you were the waiter?”

The smile which spread across Darcy's lips warmed Loki's heart and other parts of his body which he would not even think about at the moment. Pure mischief painted itself across her lips and in her eyes as she shifted to take a sip of the water a waiter set on the table. Perhaps this night of mischief was not such a good idea...

Apparently, the waiter who brought their water was still there and talking because Darcy said something in response, then turned to look at Loki expectantly. Of course, he'd been spaced out for the past minute staring at Darcy and trying to not embarrass himself (he was hundreds of years old, a woman should not make him react as if he was still a teenager).

Clearing his throat, Loki looked to the waiter with a raised eyebrow. The man had the gall to give him one of those knowing smirks, though the way his eyes wandered to Darcy, notably her chest, told Loki immediately that the man had no actual understanding of anything. Damn hormonal mortal men. “What was the question exactly?”

Their waiter jumped a little at his voice, which he was careful to infuse with a bit of warning. “I asked what you would like to drink sir.”

Loki glanced at Darcy before looking back at the waiter. “I will have whatever the lady is having.”

With another smirk, the man nodded and made some comment about bringing that immediately then inquired about their food orders. Loki really wanted to strangle their waiter at the moment. Not only was this mortal ruining their game with his presence, he kept smiling at Darcy with what the delusional imbecile had to believe was a charming look. 

Quickly, he saw Darcy glance at him, her own eyes displaying her annoyance before a slight smirk tipped up the corners of her mouth briefly. The twinkle of mayhem in her eyes made it hard for Loki to keep a straight face. This would be entertaining. 

Smiling slightly, Darcy leaned forward against the table and gave her order, in the process teasing the waiter with her words and gestures in such a manner that any man would become shell shocked from the experience. Loki himself didn't hear a word of what she said, only knew that it was the most suggestive and filthy thing he had ever heard her say even though the words were completely innocent. She then proceeded to lean back against him with a kiss to his cheek. “What will you have love?”

A glance at her face begged him to play along. As if he could have refused. “I think I'll have the Shepard's pie, see if it can even come close to matching your own sweetheart. After all, yours is so flavorful, it is impossible to resist.” His tone dripped sexuality, and he had little doubt that the waiter had grasped his innuendo given the red which now painted his face. Apparently, Darcy was still a hellcat when she wanted to be. Good.

Their waiter stuttered something about bringing their food and drinks out shortly then vanished. Against his side, Loki felt Darcy giggling silently. Even he barely suppressed his chuckles. It was satisfying to watch their waiter flee like that.

“Well, now that he's been dealt with, lets focus on our target,” suggested Darcy with a grin as she moved away from his side. “Speaking of our interruption, do you actually know what you ordered to drink?”

Loki shook his head sheepishly. “I was picturing how our waiter would look if a bucket of snakes suddenly fell on his head.”

“Fire ants would be better,” muttered Darcy.

“Given you asked, should I be afraid of what it is I will be drinking?” questioned Loki with a raised eyebrow.

Darcy shook her head. “You should be grateful I'm less of a girl. You're getting beer. Good, strong Irish beer.”

Loki nodded in approval. “Better than vodka.”

“Still remember that, eh?” teased Darcy. “I'm pretty sure that's the only time I ever saw you drunk when we chose to indulge illegally.”

“Never again,” muttered Loki. “But back to our little game. How would you handle that man if you were a waiter and wished to take revenge against him?”

The smirk which slid across Darcy's lips was beautiful. “Well, the man just sent back his steak for the most annoying reason ever, right?”

Loki nodded, remembering the rather loudly stated complaint that the steak was too tough and he had ordered his steak juicy medium rare. “What about it?”

“Well,” started Darcy, “I'd start by re-entering the man's order, same thing as he just told me, but the steak he got would have some definite kick. While in the kitchen, I'd swipe a bowl and a container of cayenne pepper. Then, I'd mix up some cayenne paste with some water from one of the pitchers and when the man's order came up, I'd smear the paste on heavily over the back and flip the steak over to hide it.”

It was hard to contain his laugh as Loki imagined the man getting a mouth-full of cayenne pepper paste coated steak. “Hmm, interesting.”

“Keep in mind that I'm excluding any of the obvious pranks such as dumping a pitcher of ice water on his head by 'accident' or dumping a tray of desserts on his head,” she added calmly. “Of course, if you dumped water on him...”

“What are you thinking?” asked Loki with a grin. 

Darcy smirked at him. “If you dumped water on him, you could have an excuse to switch his chair out. And switch it with one where the screws are loose.”

Loki started laughing as the image of the man falling on his ass as his chair fell apart filled is head. “Perfect...”

“You like that?” murmured Darcy as her head came back to rest on his shoulder.

“Adore it,” replied Loki as his arm tightened around her waist again. He felt warm and content with Darcy so close to him. “Do you want to keep playing?”

Darcy shot him a confused look. “Why wouldn't I?”

“We have more pranks to play later,” murmured Loki. “I don't want to wear you out if you haven't done this in a long time.” The snort which followed reminded Loki that he definitely wasn't out with a flower. He was still going to protect her though. “Well then, how about that woman in the corner?”

They traded back and forth ideas for about twenty minutes, with ideas about Tabasco-infused steaks and vodka spiked drinks floating around until their food came. Loki almost blushed himself when he saw what she had ordered while simultaneously attempting to keep his laughter at bay. Their waiter was lobster red as he set the bangers and mash before Darcy, eying her as if she might bite him. Or start up with her dirty talk again. His face was almost equally red as he handed Loki the Shepard's pie before retreating as quickly as he could away from the two.

“I see why the man was blushing so hard,” commented Loki as he watched Darcy cut into one of the sausages on her plate before dipping it in the mashed potatoes. That was a dangerous combination that Loki was never letting her order again. No matter how amusing her torment of the waiter was. “You are a dangerous individual.”

Darcy just grinned and took a bite. “Yes. Yes I am.”

Loki was quick to advert his eyes. “Did you order that specifically because he was hitting on you?”

“Of course,” confirmed Darcy with a laugh. “Though it did sound good.”

“Vixen,” muttered Loki as he bit into his own food.

Darcy smirked. “So is it as flavorful as my Shepard's pie?”

Seeing Loki choke on his own food sent Darcy into peels of laughter so hard she almost fell over. Of course, Loki pretended to pout at her but it didn't last long. As usual, he could not keep from laughing himself, even if he was the one being pranked in a sense. It was too difficult, especially given the whole experience seemed to be raising Darcy's spirits so much.

Through dinner they joked and played, with Loki teasing Darcy about her choice in food and Darcy teasing him right back when he ordered something with so much chocolate in it that she suspected even her stomach would protest. And she was a champion with chocolate. Still, between the two of them, the piece of cake (there was cake buried somewhere under all of the chocolate) was consumed and soon the bill came. Which led to another argument when Loki attempted to pay the whole thing, which Darcy refused to allow to the point where she actually stole his wallet. And as usual with these specific debates, Loki gave first and allowed Darcy to pay for her half the food. Stubborn woman.

As they stepped into the cooling evening air, Darcy shivered a bit, watching her breath rise in a find mist in the cool fall air. “So where is our next stop, o' God of Mischief?” 

The title sent a bolt of fear down Loki's spine and for one horrified moment he though Darcy truly knew his identity. However, before he could react she lightly punched his shoulder and chuckled. “What, don't like your old nickname?”

Recovering quickly, Loki cleared his throat casually. “It has just been a long time since someone called me that is all.”

“Riiight,” replied Darcy with a roll of her eyes. “As if I believe that. So where are we headed?”

“I was thinking Central Park, if you can keep from freezing to death,” teased Loki.

Darcy started to say something but the sound of her cell ringing cut off her thought. “Hang on.” Pulling out her phone, she made a face but answered none the less. “What's up boss lady?”

A semi-frantic voice cut through the phone, apparently belonging to the woman that was Darcy's boss. For several minutes, Darcy remained silent, making faces at whatever the woman was saying to keep Loki entertaining until something caught her attention. “What?!? No, of course, I'll be right there.” Quickly, Darcy flipped the phone shut with a curse. “Damnit! Loki, I'm sorry. Really, I am. Unfortunately someone appears to have broken into my boss' office at work and they need me to come in with her to confirm what was taken.”

Loki's face fell at her words, but he nodded in understanding. “Of course, I understand. Will it be safe for you to go alone, or should I come with you?” He knew the danger of making this offer but couldn't help it. The thought of Darcy going to a recently burgled base for any reason worried him.

Still, she shook her head firmly. “No, that's okay. They wouldn't let you in anyway. Look, honestly I doubt this is anything. The security in the area where I work is so high it would take magic or a full-scale power outage to get in. Probably someone with clearance took something from the lab for an innocuous reason or left the door unlocked or something.”

“So why do you need to go in then?” questioned Loki. “If this is nothing, that is.”

Darcy shrugged and rolled her eyes. “Protocol. If they think there was any kind of a security breach in an area, all individuals who work there are required to confirm that nothing was taken or damaged.”

Loki made a face but nodded none the less. “Of course. Do you at least want me to accompany you to the building?”

“Nah, go home and get some sleep,” insisted Darcy. “Or wait up for me or something. We can watch a movie when I get back if you want.”

“Very well,” allowed Loki reluctantly. He didn't like the idea that anyone may have broken into Darcy's office. This would require some examination. “I will see you at home then.”

As soon as Darcy was in a cab and on her way to S.H.I.E.L.D, Loki was quick to move into a dark area and teleport into the apartment he shared with Darcy. It wasn't hard to make a double from there, turn it invisible, and locate Darcy just as she was walking into S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters. Dr. Foster, who's voice matched that of the woman he had heard over the phone, greeted Darcy and the two of them were quick to move down the hallway towards their place of work.

Inside the room, everything looked as if it had been rifled through or upended. Star charts and astrophysics calculations lay scattered around the room, desks were thrown open with the content thrown everywhere. The whole room looked ransacked. 

Carefully, Loki transferred most of his concentration onto the double and focused on the environment. He could hear Darcy and Jane chattering about this and that, concerned with what might have been stolen or what someone may have been looking for. Though it was difficult, he blocked both women out to focus on what he could see.

After almost half an hour of searching the room, Loki found no sign of magic used in the infiltration, which meant that S.H.I.E.L.D's security system should have seen the culprit. Porting into the security office, Loki arrived just in time to hear Fury comment on the theft.

“So it was just a common thief looking to make a quick buck? How did he get through?” demanded Fury.

The security officer shrugged. “The man apparently planted a bug somewhere to cut power to the door locks, not realizing the security cameras were on a different circuit.”

“Was anything taken?”

“No,” replied the guard calmly as he brought up the security footage. Loki made sure to memorize what the man looked like. If S.H.I.E.L.D didn't do this right, he would. “The thief entered the office at 8:00, dressed as a member of the janitorial staff, and was out again by 8:30 having trashed the office but not apparently understanding anything he saw. Whatever Foster does to keep her files safe apparently works.”

“Apparently,” muttered Fury. “Alright, check that footage again to confirm nothing was taken. I'm going to talk to Dr. Foster myself.”

As soon as Fury was gone, Loki disappeared as well. It appeared they hadn't found the thief, but nothing had been taken either. Still, the lack of good security worried Loki. He would have to be certain to examine their systems further, just to ensure Darcy would be safe. As for this thief, he would find the man himself and see to it that he was properly dealt with. No one ruined any type of a date for Loki and got away with it.


	7. Jane's Confusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jane has an epiphany.

Jane was confused. Not stumped, puzzled, confounded, or lost. Confused. Thor level confused. Suspected she was in the twilight zone confused. All because of Tony Stark.

 

The mad genius playboy had come crashing into Jane's lab almost thirty minutes ago and literally dragged Darcy out, babbling about power surges and needing someone to look over his new supply plans. He'd only paused briefly to shout at Jane that he was borrowing Darcy for the afternoon. Rather, he'd said: “Hey Foster, I'm stealing your intern! Don't break the coffee machine again!”

 

As if she would break the coffee machine. That had been entirely Thor's fault. Digressing. She'd been around Darcy too long.

 

Taking a deep breath, Jane made her way to the hanger where Steve Rogers had politely informed her Stark had last been seen. An explosion echoed from behind the door ahead, followed by raised voices. Jane ran the rest of the way and nearly broke the keypad opening the door.

 

As it slid open, she was ready to start calling for medical personal, but the sight inside shorted her brain. Definitely twilight zone.

 

Darcy and Stark stood near the middle of the hanger, carefully approaching a smoking block of metal and wires. Darcy was clad in heavy gloves and a leather apron, with goggles perched on her forehead like some mad inventor. Stark was in jeans, a wife beater, and his own heavy apron, gloves, and goggles. Both figures were coughing and shouting at each other while attempting to wave smoke from their faces.

 

“I TOLD you that wouldn't work!” shouted Darcy. “The current was way too high! We'll be lucky if nothing melted.”

 

Stark coughed a few times before he could answer. “Well if you know so damn much, why didn't you stop me?”

 

“You wouldn't listen!”

 

A snort came from Stark. “And how, exactly, did you know that wouldn't work?”

 

Darcy started coughing again as the sound of metal striking cement echoed through the room. “I did the same thing in high school.”

 

The two continued to bicker about circuit boards, capacitor strengths, and necessary power outputs but Jane had stopped paying attention to their lively conversation. As amusing as it was to hear Darcy bitch out Stark. Jane had more important thoughts going through her head.

 

_Darcy made an error like Stark just did in high school? Why would Darcy ever play with anything remotely similar to one of Stark's machines? And why is Stark having Darcy help him? Doesn't he have his own people for these things? It isn't like Darcy is some sort of genius...._

 

“Dammit Stark, how the hell did you miswire this board?” exclaimed Darcy, drawing Jane's attention back to the arguing duo.

 

“Me?” snapped Stark. “What makes you think I had anything to do with it?”

 

“Well you did put this thing together, right?” shot back Darcy, now waist deep in the smoking mass.

 

Stark snorted. “Of course I did. What makes you think anything is miswired?”

 

Darcy just stepped back and motioned for Stark to take a look. The man shot her a look before he bent over and started rooting around in the machine where Darcy had been moments ago. Not three seconds later, he started cursing madly. “Dammit! How the hell did that happen?”

 

Muttered curses, exclamations, and clanging followed, revealing just how mad Tony was. However, Darcy caught sight of Jane and waved. She headed towards the astrophysicist with a shake of her head, a thumb pointing towards Stark while the index finger of her other hand swirled beside her temple in the class crazy gesture. Jane had to force herself to act casual, not wanting to clue Darcy in that she'd witnessed anything strange.

 

“Hey boss lady, what's shakin?” greeted Darcy with a grin and roll of her eyes as Stark apparently hit his head on something. She pointedly ignored the raving that followed.

 

“Nothing really,” muttered Jane, somewhat distracted by Stark's exclamations. “Darcy, why are you helping Stark?”

 

Darcy shrugged. “Someone's gotta man the fire extinguisher. Besides, leaving him alone while he works is a no-no according to Coulson and if he has to have someone hovering around, apparently he'd rather it be me. Personally, I think he wants me around for perverted reasons...”

 

“Hey!” shouted Stark. “I heard that!”

 

Darcy just rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I'm here for the rest of the day unless you urgently need me.”

 

Jane shook her head quickly. “No! No, that's alright. Have fun babysitting Stark...”

 

“Loads of fun,” muttered Darcy.

 

“Hey Darce, stop chatting with the astrophysics guru and come help me get this piece of junk working!” shouted Stark. Apparently he'd stopped his little rant.

 

“Hold your horses! I'm coming!” Pause. “Not _THAT_ way you perv!”

 

Stark broke into laughter as Darcy heaved a sigh. “I'll be back tomorrow Jane. Promise. Pretty sure I'll kill him if I have to work with him for one more day.”

 

Jane gave her an encouraging smile before ducking back out the door. As she walked away, another explosion rang out, followed by a simultaneous “Oh come _ON_!” from Stark and Darcy. _Poor Darcy..._

 

A sudden thought scurried across Jane's consciousness which nearly had the genius astrophysicist rushing back to the hanger. Pepper had once told her that Tony _hated_ to have people around when he worked. To the point that he would refuse to work, period, if that was a requirement. The only exception was if someone could understand what he was doing without explanation and could add to his work. _Then_ he'd go so far as to seek out that person's company. Like he had with Darcy.

 

Suddenly, Jane found it imperative she speak with Pepper. And Erik. And possibly Fury. If Darcy really was a genius and just hid it well, Jane would have to rethink her own genius status. Especially if _Stark_ of all people figured it out first. _That_ would be embarrassing...


	8. Loki's Proposal

Two weeks had passed since Loki and Darcy's aborted date night, and Loki's plan of attack was complete. The next day, he would bring his plans to fruition against S.H.I.E.L.D, steal the Odin Cube, and use its power to conquer the world. His father and brother would then know exactly how powerful he was. This would make them truly regret their deceit. No one deceived the God of Lies and got away with it. No one.

A click of metal on metal from the front door caused Loki to jump and quickly shut the lid of his computer, scrambling to greet Darcy as she entered. Normal. He needed to act normal...did he even know how to do that? Right, normal for him... Damn, now he wanted to laugh manically. “Hello Darcy. How was work?”

She snorted slightly, and the scent of smoke and metal met his nose. “Fan-fucking-tastic. One of my boss's coworkers, the one who rolls with pranks, kidnapped me today to help him build a power generator for something he's working on. The whole damn thing shorted out because he miswired some stuff and now it looks like I might be working with him tomorrow too. Ugh.”

Loki gave her a sympathetic smile. Darcy was a genius with power systems and knew what to do to make something work. That she was dealing with someone who made such a colossal mistake would frustrate her to no end. She needs to relax...An idea popped into Loki's head almost immediately and with all the force of a pile driver.

“We should have fun tonight,” insisted Loki with a grin. “Classical fun.”

Both of Darcy's eyebrows shot up. “Classical fun? Not of the naked variety I'm assuming.”

He nodded quickly, his face turning slightly red as several other images of ways he could help her relax popped into his head. Mind out of the gutter, now. Standing, Loki allowed one of his hands to rest on her shoulder, pushing her slightly toward the bedroom. “Definitely not. Now, go shower and put something semi-nice on. I know just the place to go.”

“And what will you be wearing?” questioned Darcy mildly as she moved towards the bedroom. “I need some basic idea of what I'm getting myself into by agreeing to this.”

“Pants,” replied Loki with a smirk. “And a shirt.”

Darcy pouted. “Not fair!”

Sighing, Loki leaned over instinctively and kissed Darcy's forehead. “Go shower and put on a dress or a skirt. Either will suffice.”

“Alright,” muttered Darcy as she stalked into the bathroom and shut the door, “but this better not be a ploy for you to be able to ogle my ass!”

The sound of Loki choking made Darcy giggle. “Do men often attempt to do this? If so, I may have to take some drastic measures.”

He could practically hear the eye-roll in Darcy's voice. “Only when I'm working with Stark. Or any other horny-ass male for that matter.”

For reasons Loki was reluctant to examine, the thought of anyone staring at Darcy's assets bothered him beyond what it should a friend. “I see. Perhaps I should have a word with this Stark...”

“Don't even think about it!”

Her vehement response sent Loki into his own fit of laughter as he went about changing into different clothing. In other words, magicking new clothing onto his body which matched what he wanted. The black slacks were snug but practical and his green button-up matched the color of his eyes almost perfectly. Black shoes and socks finished everything off, with a black jacket laying on a chair in the living room to be grabbed as they left. 

Smiling, Loki turned to leave when the bathroom door suddenly opened behind him. He'd heard the water turn on and, from the sounds of it, the shower was still running. Turning to ask Darcy if she needed something, he could only gape like a goldfish out of water. Steam flooded along the ceiling as Darcy came sauntering out of the bathroom...in nothing but a towel.

Of course, Loki tried to turn away. Really, he did. But the scene in front of him...well, he is male. And even if she was one of the only friends Loki had ever really had, her body was that of a woman, and... I am completely, undeniably fucked. It feels as if I am about to witness a train accident, incapable of looking away....

Darcy, for her part, ignored the fact that Loki was standing in the door as she wondered to her closet and grabbed a bottle and some small scrap of cloth. All he could really tell was that it was green. Emerald green. Please do not let those be her panties. By Odin, please, PLEASE do not let that be what she is wearing beneath her dress... Still, the shape was unmistakable. Dammit. How, by the Allfather's will, am I supposed to resist doing something completely unsavory tonight, such as ravishing her against a damn wall, if I know she is wearing THAT under her clothing?

What Loki couldn't see was the spark of mischief in Darcy's eyes as she grabbed the panties from her drawer. Originally she'd just come out for shampoo, which she had forgotten to replace the previous night. However, seeing Loki standing in the doorway like a bad stalker had given her an idea for some chaos. Of course, she admitted that teasing him probably wasn't really fair, but it wasn't as if he was interested in her that way anyway. After all, he had run last time when things had started to build between them. Though that hadn't been in his control, she'd seen a certain degree of relief in his eyes when he told her and Dani that his family was moving away. It was a form of rejection, one which Darcy did her best not to think about.

Without a word, she turned and wondered back into the bathroom, closing the door with a click that drew Loki back out of his thoughts. Quickly, he exited the room in the hopes he could find some way of clearing the image of Darcy in a towel from his head, along with inappropriate ideas about how he would like to deal with that particular pair of her panties. Thirty minutes later, the image was still firmly planted in Loki's head when Darcy exited the bedroom.

Loki took one look at her and felt his brain promptly shut down. I am in trouble. So much trouble. This is unfair! Why does she have the power to take my speech from me when even father could not remove that ability?

Her clothing wasn't really revealing or inappropriate. In fact, it almost hung on the conservative side in some regards. The problem really was that it was Darcy in a knee-length dress with a neckline that would have been decent if it weren't for the fact that she was incredibly gifted in the development department. And Loki was having a little too much trouble picking his jaw up off the ground. This was a bad idea...

“So, where are we going?” questioned Darcy again as she strapped heels to her feet, her legs propped up on the couch.

Loki found it hard to make his mouth move. Forming words was next to impossible. She glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. He swallowed and tried again. This time, sound was achieved. “It's a surprise.”

Darcy just laughed. “Using conjunctions now? Wow, this dress has some power!”

A faint blush covered Loki's cheeks as he cleared his throat. “Yes, well, you look quite lovely. It is to be expected that any man who lays eyes upon you will be somewhat stunned.”

All she did was laugh harder.

“Anyway,” continued Loki uncomfortably. “Shall we go?”

“Sure,” replied Darcy with a grin. “Save you from the embarrassment.”

Loki rolled his eyes and ushered her out of the apartment, grabbing his jacket as they walked out. As they climbed into Darcy's car, Loki insisting that he had to drive to maintain the secrecy of their location, Darcy took the time to examine Loki. Not that she hadn't earlier, but she'd been having so much fun with her teasing that she hadn't cataloged him in detail. It made Loki smile.

“Like what you see?” he teased.

Darcy just smirked. “Tall, dark, and handsome? What's not to like.”

Loki felt his cheeks reddening again. How does she keep doing that? “I would not use those exact descriptors...”

The smirk faded to a soft smile almost immediately. “Well, I would. No matter what you looked like, I'd call you handsome.”

Her words struck a strange nerve in Loki, and he fell silent quickly. Memories of his father's betrayal and his own monstrous form danced through his head for a moment before Darcy drew him back with a hand to his arm. Her eyebrow was cocked mildly at him, but her brows were slightly furrowed and her eyes shone with worry. 

“Nothing is wrong,” assured Loki, recognizing the look from so long ago. At least someone is inclined to ask...

Darcy shot him a soft but disbelieving look. “It isn't nothing.” Her fingers landed on his shoulder softly. “There has always been something, some event or treatment that drove your anger and self-depreciation. But you're not ready to talk about it, and I understand that.”

Loki felt himself swallow hard. “It is not a lack of inclination to discuss this matter Darcy, but the time is not right. Not yet. Soon though, soon I can tell you everything that you ever wanted to know.”

The smile that touched the edges of her lips allowed him to relax again. “I'm going to hold you to that.”

“As you better,” laughed Loki. “If you failed to remind me of those very words until I told you everything, I would be somewhat disappointed.”

They lapsed into silence after that, though one of Loki's hands came up to take Darcy's own. Without a thought, she laced their fingers together and smirked at him. Her eyes told him she thought he was a bit of a softy, but he took no offense. It was her opinion, and having her think him a soft was better than her think him a monster.

How will I keep that side of myself from her? I could not bear it if she ever ran from me, nor if she were ever to look upon me with disgust... Loki took a deeper breath than normal, drawing a raised eyebrow from Darcy. He could almost swear that she could read his thoughts. Especially when her hand tightened on his slightly. As he pulled into a parking space about a block from the restaurant, she dropped a kiss on his cheek.

“Leave your thoughts here Loki,” murmured Darcy, her voice near his ear. It was incredibly distracting. “I don't want to see that doubt or fear on your face for the rest of the night. Nothing you do could ever drive me away or frighten me.”

His eyes shot to hers in shock, but her own eyes held nothing except truth. “How did you know...”

Another kiss to his cheek silenced him, before she leaned back in her seat. “I know you, Loki. Better than you may even know yourself. I've seen every face you can make, and you've told me more than you probably even realize with just your tone and reactions when things happen. That means that I can tell when you're afraid of something, like frightening someone. Remember when Dani's sister had her baby and we went to the hospital?”

Loki nodded, confusion creasing his brow. “Distinctly. What does that have to do with this?”

“You had the same look on your face when Dani tried to hand you her niece that you did a moment ago,” explained Darcy. “You told me later that you had held children before, that you're family was extensive, and that you were afraid that her niece would start crying if you held her.”

“I do not understand how that equates to your understanding of my thoughts just now,” insisted Loki. Really, what was the connection? He knew his friend's mind was chaos, but this beyond what he was used to.

A soft smile crossed her face. “Rejection. You're always afraid people are going to reject you, for reasons I've never understood. Probably part of the reason I never wanted to meet any member of your family.”

Now Loki was completely confused. “Please, explain...”

“I would have probably hit someone,” elaborated Darcy with a bit of a face. “I doubt that would have gone over well, and I really didn't need to end up in jail for assault...would have been totally worth it though. Especially your brother.”

Warmth bloomed in Loki's chest which he didn't even bother to suppress. This woman was willing to hit his brother for him, even if she didn't know his brother was a god. That was more than anyone had ever been willing to do for him before. Of course, there was no guarantee that Darcy wouldn't swoon over Thor should she ever meet him, but somehow Loki suspected his brother would find it an incredible challenge. Assuming they had not met already through Dr. Foster or another S.H.I.E.L.D.-based occurrence. However, even that thought could not force the warmth of Darcy's words from his chest.

“We should get to the restaurant,” suggested Loki as he cleared his throat. “Otherwise getting a table may become difficult.”

Darcy just grinned and extracted her hand from Loki's to exit the car. His hand felt cold as they climbed from the vehicle, though she took his hand again almost immediately as they started walking. “So what kind of a restaurant is this place?”

Again, a smirk slid over Loki's features. “Patience Darcy, I know you have it. I have seen you wait for hours for someone to trigger one of your pranks.”

Darcy pouted slightly, which caused him to laugh in order to suppress other feelings. Tonight was going to be difficult, that was for certain. Maybe I will get lucky and escape unscathed...

Somehow, that felt like a fantasy.


	9. Restaurants, Dancing, and the Avengers

Darcy sighed, somewhat annoyed, as Loki lead her along. He had insisted she close her eyes as they reached the corner of the street where he'd parked the car. Some excuse that he really wanted to surprise her. _He's just lucky I trust him so damn much, otherwise I'd never let him lead me around blindly...I wonder if its a bad sign psychologically that I'm willing to completely trust someone who's earned the title God of Mischief? Especially sense that title is often coupled with the title God of Lies?_

 

“What has you thinking so hard Darcy?” Loki's smooth voice was so close that Darcy might have been tempted to jump. How the hell did she not notice him leaning right next to her ear?

 

“I'm trying to determine if trusting someone with the title God of Mischief is grounds for commitment,” replied Darcy with a faint smile.

 

She could practically feel his confusion. “Commitment to what?”

 

“An asylum.” A smile was pulling at the edge of her lips. She'd learned when they were younger that Loki didn't know some of the strangest things. Usually that had been blamed on a bit of a language barrier, especially given he learned most of his English from a class rather than first-hand use, but there were some things she'd always doubted he couldn't know. Ferreting those out was one of her favorite past-times.

 

“Why would you require asylum due to your trust of me?” continued Loki, still confused. It reminded her of a confused Thor.

 

“In English, people call psych wards and mental hospitals asylums and sanitariums,” explained Darcy. “Never heard that one?”

 

“Never,” muttered Loki. “English truly is a strange language.”

 

Darcy just laughed as he pulled her to a stop and opened a door. The sound of jazz music and scent of creole spices floated out of the open doorway, causing Darcy's eyes to spring open. Loki just smiled and pulled her into the Cajun restaurant.

 

The grin he gave her, in response to her own stunned face, was nearly blinding. “I shall assume you are pleased?”

 

“It smells just like Grandma Marmay's,” murmured Darcy. She could feel a few tears form near the corner of her eyes at the memory of her now deceased grandmother.

 

Loki's grin softened to a smile as he lead her to the podium where a man stood waiting to seat people. The man smiled at them both with a nod. “Good evening sir, madam.” His greeting was genuinely friendly.

 

“Good evening,” greeted Loki. “My name is Loki. I called recently-”

 

The man's grin widened. “Of course, I remember you. Curious name, Loki. You're the man who was asking about the authenticity of our food.”

 

Darcy was floored. Loki had called to ask if their food was authentic?

 

Loki nodded back. “Yes, that was me. Do you have room for tonight?”

 

“Definitely,” replied the man. “My boss made it clear we always have room for natives of Louisiana, or even the children of natives.” He grabbed up a menu and lead them into the main dining area.

 

When they entered the room, Darcy actually froze in the entrance. The wild jazz they'd heard entering was actually coming from a live jazz band all dressed in the casual clothes she remembered seeing musicians on Bourbon Street wearing when Grandma Marmey had taken her to New Orleans one summer. _'Jazz can't come from a radio or a record Darcy. You can only hear the heart of Jazz when it's played live.'_ Hearing the band now, Darcy knew her grandmother's words held nothing but the truth.

 

Loki's gentle tug on her hand reminded her to move, and she followed him slowly into the room. Their server didn't seem to mind her slow pace. In fact, he was smiling at her with the gentle patience of a man who knew exactly how she felt.

 

Their table was tucked away into a corner, close enough to the band that they could hear every note but not so close as to be unable to talk. They also had a nearly unobstructed view of the room at large. The man who had been leading them handed the menu to Loki and grinned at her. “Craig will be out in a minute. He wants to meet the lady who drove her young man to actually call about our food.”

 

Darcy looked a little stunned. “I never asked him to call about your food, I swear!”

 

The man laughed. “I meant, you are important enough that he would go through the trouble of doing so.”

 

“Oh...” whispered Darcy, clearly surprised.

 

Loki smiled softly and held the menu out to Darcy as he leaned back in the seat. “I would not dream of bringing you to a restaurant boasting that they make authentic Cajun food without confirming the accuracy of their claim.”

 

She felt a faint smile tug at the corners of her mouth. “Gotta admit, I don't usually go for Cajun food because most of the time it doesn't live up to my expectations.”

 

“Exactly,” replied Loki as he tucked an arm around Darcy's lower back subtly.

 

A man suddenly stopped in front of them, stern-faced and serious. His hair was peppered with gray and short but still plentiful, blending some with his pale skin. The combination made his brown eyes pop. “Loki party of two?”

 

Both Loki and Darcy looked at the man nervously and nodded. A grin broke across the guys face, softening his features in a friendly way and making his brown eyes dance. “I'm Landry, the owner. Its good to meet you, Loki. Is it safe to assume the lady is yours?”

 

Loki choked a little and Darcy grinned at Landry, a bright megawatt smile. “Something like that. I have a shrine to him in my apartment.”

 

Of course, Loki choked further but Landry had caught the glint in her eyes that said there was a lot more to the story. He thought for a moment before a sure smile spread across his face. “Let me guess, its dedicated to the God of Mischief?”

 

“You're familiar with Norse religion?” questioned Darcy, who perked up further.

 

Landry nodded. “My wife is Norwegian, and claims that it isn't a house if there ain't at least one shrine to Frigga in it. Or something like that.”

 

Darcy nodded in apparent understanding. “So Loki apparently shook you guys down for information, huh?”

 

“I'd expect as much,” replied Landry with a grin. “Pretty young girl like you to impress? With a southern me-ma for the matter? If he didn't call, I'd have been more disappointed.”

 

“Yeah, grandma Marmay liked her food authentic,” confirmed Darcy. “As in, spitting fire from your mouth authentic.”

 

Landry's grin widened more. “Ah, a true Cajun woman from the sounds of it. Well, I'm hoping we can live up to her memory.”

 

Darcy nodded with a smile. “Thank you. Hopefully you can. I'd love to have a Cajun restaurant I could go to without feeling like I'm spitting on her grave.”

 

She and Landry talked for a few minutes more, before the waiter showed back up with water and two glasses of Bourbon, which Landry insisted was on the house. The waiter had even brought him one with theirs. After that, Landry quickly took his leave, insisting that Darcy needed to try their jambalaya. It had been her second favorite dish of Marmay's and he was hoping their own chief could live up to her expectations. Her favorite had been gumbo, which Landry insisted made the dish sacred and he wouldn't dare try to compare to it.

 

“Well, he is welcoming,” commented Loki uneasily.

 

Darcy laughed a little. “He's Cajun Loki, of course he's welcoming. What I'm amazed at is that he treats me as if I'm one of them.”

 

Loki nodded calmly. “He insisted that anyone exposed to what he calls 'Cajun culture' by a relative, qualifies to at least a small degree as a Cajun themselves. Though that explanation seems questionable.”

 

“Yeah,” snickered Darcy. “In general, just count anyone from the southern part of this country as overly friendly.”

 

“Very well.” Loki shifted slightly in his seat, his eyes scanning the room calmly as the waiter approached again for their orders. Well, really, it was Loki's order given hers had already been placed. He ordered gumbo, and was promptly asked if he wanted authentic or non-authentic spice. She quickly cut in, insisting on the non-authentic spice.

 

When their server had left, Loki was quick to question her decision. “Why did you insist on the non-authentic variation of that dish?”

 

Darcy smiled slightly. “You choke a little at the level of spice I use in my own food. Authentic Cajun is spicier.”

 

His brow furrowed as he pouted a little. “I did not _choke_ , a small bit of the spice simply became lodged in my throat. Which, I might add, only occurred once.”

 

“Sure,” teased Darcy.

 

The pout deepened a little as a new song began to play. An up-beat one Darcy knew very well. Apparently Loki noticed her change in attitude because he took her hand with a grin and pulled her from the booth. “Enough teasing. We shall dance.”

 

Darcy snorted slightly. “What, you're not even gonna ask first?”

 

“Would you say no?” challenged Loki with a smirk. Okay, he had a point.

 

“Knowing the option exists is nice,” she mumbled as he took one of her hands, spinning her slightly before settling his other hand on her waist.

 

His smirk was pure mischief. “Yes, but where is the fun in that? Besides, I was lead to believe that you _enjoyed_ dancing. The swing classes you forced me into cannot be _that_ far from your mind.”

 

“No room to swing here,” muttered Darcy.

 

“Says who?” whispered Loki before spinning Darcy in one of the more classic swing motions.

 

It took her a moment to grasp what exactly he was doing. Thankfully she knew the basic swing steps almost as well as she knew how to walk. That would have been embarrassing otherwise. Her feet quickly fell into step with Loki's and soon she was laughing with him as they danced through several different songs before realizing their food had arrived.

 

A man neither recognized dressed in the restaurant's uniform was grinning at them as they approached. “Having fun?” His dark eyes were shining with mirth and the grin he wore stretched nearly from ear to ear. Memories of Darcy's grandfather and uncle floated briefly to the surface.

 

“Quite,” replied Loki with a smile as he slid into the booth again. Her own blinding smile answered the man's question.

 

“How long have you two been dancing?” he asked curiously. “That was very impressive. Almost every eye in the restaurant was on you two.”

 

Loki shrugged mildly, taking a drink of his water. “It has been years since we danced together. Good to know our skills have not been tarnished by age.”

 

“Definitely,” agreed Darcy as she chugged her own drink. Loki, who had been staring at her, quickly looked away as if a little uncomfortable. It was odd but she shrugged it off. Hell, he found a restaurant with a live jazz band and dance floor. That _alone_ gave him clearance to have his odd moments. “This smells amazing.”

 

“Thank you,” replied the man. “I'm Karl, the chief here. Landry told me to make up a special batch of authentic jambalaya, and I wanted to meet the individual who earned such a special request. As well as the man who called my cooking into question without tasting it first.”

 

Loki chuckled a little. “Yes, well, I have learned the hard way that feeding a member of a Cajun family, no matter how far removed from the culture, anything but authentic Cajun is dangerous to my health.”

 

Karl just laughed. “Ah, well that just explains everything then. Yes, that's a _very_ dangerous thing to do. It'll loose you a few fingers a minimum. Though, given you still _have_ your fingers, I'm going to guess you were forgiven?”

 

“With a warning,” Loki confirmed. “And bleeding eardrums.”

 

“Hey!” exclaimed Darcy. Time to cut this party down. Geez. “I didn't make THAT much of a fuss.”

 

Loki's raised eyebrow told her that she, in fact, had. Her tongue poked out at him in response. He just laughed.

 

Karl gave them both a smirk, his eyes almost knowing as they moved between the two. “Well then, I'll leave you two alone. Enjoy.” With that, he spun and walked back into the kitchen.

 

As soon as he was gone, Loki turned his eyes firmly onto Darcy. “Well, are you going to try your food?”

 

“I'm gettin' there,” she growled in response, picking up her spoon and biting into the food before her. A little moan of happiness escaped her throat. Okay, they were DEFINITELY coming back. Without a doubt. Possibly once a week. Maybe the chief would be willing to share cooking secrets with her...

 

She was brought back from her thoughts by Loki's own strange little sound. Glancing at him, she noticed that his face was a little strained, his spoon held in one hand. Curious, she dipped her own spoon into his food. A little smile escaped as she realized exactly why he was making the face he was.

 

“Told you, you'd choke,” she teased, digging into her food with relish and enjoying the spicy flavor.

 

Loki finally managed to swallow what was in his mouth, making a face at her. “I did not choke. It was simply hotter than I expected.”

 

“And you wondered why I told them not to bring the authentic shit,” muttered Darcy with a hit of a smile.

 

His eyes narrowed at her in a way they often did when he felt challenged. “You would choke as well, if your food were as spicy.”

 

Her eyebrow went up and with a smirk, she pushed her bowl towards him. Challenge accepted. Not that she wasn't aware she'd already won. Her own food was significantly spicier than what he was eating. With all the pride of a prince, Loki dipped his spoon into her food and quickly took a bite. The look on his face when he realized that _yes, her food was in fact spicier_ was priceless. So was the amount of water he managed to gulp down in the next minute. _I should tell Jane to bring Thor here. THAT would be funny. They'll need a video camera though..._

 

Loki's choking cough alerted her to the fact that he was done gulping water. The look he wore was a pure pout. Rolling her eyes, Darcy kissed his temple with a smile, hoping the gesture would make him feel better. “You shouldn't challenge those of us who have Cajun family. We _like_ things that burn our tongues off.”

 

“Clearly,” he muttered, but the pout lifted some. Carefully, he began to eat his food again, clearly prepared for the spice this time. However, about a quarter of the way through his food, Darcy took pity on him and waved down their server. She asked the man if they could get some extra white rice, which he promptly brought and she promptly dumped into the middle of Loki's food.

 

At his confused face, she took his spoon, scooped some of the gumbo onto the spoon with a clump of rice and held it out to him. The additional rice apparently made quite a difference because Loki's eyes lit up some as if she had just discovered some magnificent secret. She just smiled back and finished her food.

 

For Loki's part, once his food was significantly less likely to remove all ability to taste from his tongue, dinner seemed to go far smoother. Even dessert was nice. In fact, nothing at all tragic or disappointing happened until Darcy went to the restroom. That was when all hell broke loose for him.

 

Almost as soon as Darcy had turned the corner, his brother came sauntering into the restaurant with Jane, Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, and a red-haired woman Loki was only marginally familiar with as Pepper Potts. Fortunately, he and Darcy were seated in the back and somewhat sequestered away. Unfortunately, to leave they would have to walk directly past the group now seated at a big table in the middle of the room. Worse, Darcy worked with Jane. The others would not recognize her, but Jane certainly would. The only hope Loki had was that their bill was returned to him before Darcy got back, so he might meet her near the restaurant's entrance.

 

Luck did seem to be a bit on his side at that moment when the waiter showed up with their change and a copy of the bill. Right, he had used paper currency. Thankfully. Unfortunately, now the waiter was standing their attempting to speak with him. And he had no way to hide himself from the others with the waiter standing there. Unless...

 

A thought suddenly struck Loki.

 

“I am sorry, but I am afraid you must excuse me immediately,” insisted Loki quickly to the man.

 

Their waiter looked surprised at his insistence. “Is something wrong, sir?”

 

“Yes,” insisted Loki, quickly spinning the lie together in his head. “You see, that man right there with the blond hair, the one talking with the brunette, is Darcy's ex-boyfriend. He cheated on her rather brutally with her ex-boss, the woman seated with him. And unfortunately, the whole matter still upsets her greatly. One of the reasons I suggested we come here was to take her mind off the whole mess and attempt to cheer her up. However, I fear that if she sees them there will be trouble. Worse, I fear if they see me, there will be trouble. Unfortunately, I struck her ex rather hard when I learned what he had done and he was non too happy about the matter. Thus, I need to slip out of here and collect her before she becomes engaged with the group. It would be best if she not know they are here, either.”

 

Their waiter nodded eagerly. “Of course. Would you like me to create a distraction?”

 

Loki's eyes widened. That had been unexpected. “If you can.” He had expected the story to get the man to leave him so he could gather Darcy and exit. Not for the man to offer to help him slip out.

 

Smirking, the waiter nodded. “I'm from Louisiana as well, New Orleans to be precise. We don't care much for cheaters down there and especially despise men who cheat on one of our own.” With that, he turned away from Loki and strode immediately towards the group of Avengers, grabbing a pitcher of water as he went. He stopped at the end of the table near where Thor was, and introduced himself, then moved to fill their waters. And promptly dumped the pitcher of water artfully onto Thor's lap while making the whole thing appear to be an accident.

 

Loki used the chaos to escape the room, nodding his thanks the waiter as he left. He also slipped a piece of paper to the man who had seated them and was looking rather unsettled at the chaos in the dining space. “You can have your boss call me if he needs to confirm the reason for the events which just took place.”

 

Darcy chose that moment to emerge and Loki smiled at her calmly, holding open the jacket she had worn in. “Ready to leave?”

 

She nodded slowly, eying him suspiciously. “Yeah...is something wrong?”

 

Loki shook his head quickly. “No, nothing at all. I simply thought we could go for a walk before heading back to the apartment.”

 

“Sounds nice,” admitted Darcy, though she was still looking at him suspiciously. However, she took his arm in silence and walked out with him. As they were leaving there was some kind of an angry yell from Landry for everyone to 'shut the hell up and settle down before he went Cajun on their asses, regardless of who they were'. Imagining the look on Tony Stark's face when he heard that brought a smile to Loki's lips. Yes, the evening hadn't gone badly at all.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Loki spinning a lie as he did seems impractical, but I chose to leave that in because, frankly, I wanted the opportunity for Landry to tell everyone off. Plus, the idea of someone spilling ice water on Thor is just too much fun.


	10. Loki's Attack and Darcy's Escape

S.H.I.E.L.D was in an uproar. Full-blown red alert. Agents were running around like headless chickens, monitors kept flashing though images of the outside world, and part of the building may or may not have been on fire. Darcy wasn't really sure. In fact, she wasn't really sure what was even going on.

 

The alarms had started up almost ten minutes ago, followed by absolute chaos and no indication what-so-ever about what was happening. Immediately, Jane had thrown everything they were working on into a bag they could carry out if evacuation was necessary. After that, she'd left the bag with Darcy and ran to find Thor. Now, she was still gone and Darcy was stuck sitting in the office with a progressively worsening headache and no means of leaving because someone had to stay with the top-secret research.

 

It was completely boring.

 

Of course, most people wouldn't consider being stuck in the middle of a military lock-down boring, but she was Darcy Lewis. Trickster extraordinaire. Goddess of Mischief (even if it was only in title). Remaining seated and in the dark (proverbially or literally) for long periods of time annoyed her. Thus, it wasn't long before she was itching to get moving.

 

She was about ready to stomp out the door and say 'screw it' to the rules when Jane came stumbling back into the room. Her eyes were teary and red splotches stained the skin of her cheeks. “Thor's gone, the Avengers have been dispatched. Apparently, Thor's brother is attacking the city.”

 

“Baldur is attacking?” questioned Darcy. “Finally! I was wondering if that guy would ever grow any balls.”

 

Jane looked at Darcy as if she had grown another head and turned blue. “Darcy, Thor doesn't have a brother named Baldur anymore. He died years ago.” The confusion on Darcy's face must have been visible because Jane continue. “Darcy, Loki is the one attacking.”

 

She felt the blood rush from her face as her hands began to shake. _Please let this be a bad dream. Please, please, please! Please don't let it be my Loki._ Before Jane could say another word, Darcy darted from the room towards the nearest bank of monitors displaying the fight. What she saw made the world spin. Someone grabbed her arm and helped her to sit. Had she been swaying? It was hard to say. All she could see was the image on the monitor.

 

Buildings were scorched, burned, and crumbling. Some had already fallen and many looked as if it wouldn't be long before they were no longer standing. The street was torn up, as if explosions had ripped the pavement free from beneath. Strange creatures darted left and right across the sky and street. Darcy could see most of the Avengers attempting to fight off the monsters, but it was Thor that her eyes were trained on. Thor...and Loki.

 

_Loki. Oh gods, Loki! What's happened to you?_

 

He was standing there, in the middle of the street, staff in hand, full-blown gold and green armor shining, cape billowing, everything. The image was amazing. In fact, if Darcy weren't so worried about him, she would have wanted to do some _very_ inappropriate things to him. Really, she would have to do something about that eventually...digressing.

 

She needed to save him, stop this madness. There was not a snowball's chance in hell that she was gong to let him get hurt pulling this stupid stunt. Friends don't let friends get their asses kicked by hot guys in spandex. Even if one of those guys is apparently their brother. Right? Eh, it was something like that. Prankster Code of Honor required her to defend a fellow prankster, even if said prankster appeared to have gone off the deep end. _What happened anyway? I'll just have to ask him, once I find a way out of here._

 

That would be the trickiest part. S.H.I.E.L.D locked down the doors into the building as part of their security measures, meaning entrance and exit were next to impossible. _Well, for most people. The locks are electronic, I should be able to bust them. Just need to figure out how and create a distraction to ensure no one sees. And fast._

 

Her mind ran through a series of different options and in less than five minutes, she had a plan in place. It was just a matter of executing it. First things first, she needed access to some basic chemicals, ones she knew were in Jane's lab.

 

Lifting her head, she was surprised to see Jane and Pepper looking at her worriedly. As if they thought she'd lost her head. Jokingly, as if to appease them, she reached up and cupped the base of her skull before pulling lightly. “Stop looking at me like that, its still attached.”

 

Jane looked confused. “What?”

 

“You two were looking at me like I'd lost my head,” explained Darcy. “So I was showing you it was still attached...”

 

“Are you alright, Darcy?” questioned Pepper, clearly concerned. “You looked ready to collapse a moment ago.”

 

“You did pretty much collapse,” corrected Jane.

 

Darcy just nodded briskly. “Uh, yeah, I'm fine.”

 

“Darcy?” prompted Jane. “What's wrong?”

 

Silently, Darcy cursed her own reaction and Jane's observational skills. Glancing around, she noted that no one was paying them any attention, but that didn't mean she was going to just tell Jane or Pepper what was going on without some degree of privacy. The stuff she needed was in Jane's lab, and she knew she could scramble the recording equipment in the lab to ensure no one would hear their conversation.

 

Mind made up, Darcy stood and grabbed both Jane's and Pepper's wrists. “Not here.”

 

Without waiting for a response, she dragged both women back to the lab and locked the door. Jane opened her mouth to speak, but Darcy held up a finger as she pulled out her iPod. Well, supposed iPod. The device looked exactly like an iPod but she'd made it herself, both the software and hardware, so she could remotely control all of her little gadgets. Opening one of the applications now, a light on the screen flashed three times before switching to green. Perfect, the jammer was on.

 

“Sorry about that, I had to make sure S.H.I.E.L.D's surveillance equipment was jammed,” explained Darcy as she began sweeping around the room and gathering what she needed. Her chemistry was rusty, but she could hopefully remember how to make a proper smoke bomb. “To answer you question Jane, you're right. I'm not okay. My best friend is currently out there attacking the city and I'm trapped in here. Well, not for long I'm not, but still...”

 

She could hear Jane choking behind her, but the reaction was expected. After all, it wasn't everyday someone claimed a man attacking a city as their best friend. Well, unless you were Spider-man, but he had issues.

 

Someone dropped heavily into a chair, but she ignored it in favor of beginning to mix the materials for her little bomb. When someone moaned though, she glanced back to make sure neither Pepper nor Jane had fainted. Both were seated in the two chairs normally found in the room, and neither looked well.

 

“It's not that bad,” muttered Darcy as she poured the chemicals into a large canister she'd found with a lid. The trigger would be harder to make. Pulling together a few wires, a battery, a few chemicals she needed, and a circuit she'd been working with recently, she began making a very small, low impact explosive that would trigger with a slight spark. It wouldn't actually hurt anything but would be strong enough to blow a hole in the canister containing her smoke bomb.

 

“Darcy, you must be joking,” insisted Jane as she finally managed to regain her voice.

 

“Agreed,” muttered Pepper. “Who would ever claim a raging sociopath as a friend?”

 

The breath Darcy let out was irritated, but her hands continued their work. “Look, believe it nor not, Loki isn't usually like this. Hell, just last night we were sitting at a restaurant enjoying jambalaya and dancing to jazz music. Something happened. I don't know what, but something happened and he cracked. Not that I'm really surprised. His family has more issues than a pair of jackrabbits addicted to meth.”

 

Sighing, she finished her little explosive and turned to face Jane and Pepper. Both women were staring at her with mixed expressions of disturbance, fear, and shock. “You guys probably won't believe this, but Loki is one of the sweetest, kindest guys I've ever met in my life. He has always supported me when I've wanted to do something, no matter how stupid, and he's stood with me through some rough shit. He wasn't there when I lost Dani, but if he had been I know it would have been easier. Hell, maybe I would have continued to pursue engineering and become top in the field like everyone though I would. Maybe I wouldn't have become estranged from my family. But whatever I wanted to do, he would have stood by me and helped me though that.”

 

She paused with her next words, unsure how much she should really tell Jane or Pepper. Jane was dating Thor after all, one of the people Darcy suspected caused Loki the most pain in his life. Still, they needed to understand what Darcy had come to see. “Loki's family has only ever caused him grief, and I've seen it every day since I met him. And I'm damn willing to bet his family has something to do with this. It isn't in his nature to try to take over the world. Cause mischief, yes. Play pranks, totally. Create pure destruction? No. Something is wrong and I'm not going to let him face it alone.”

 

Jane was staring at her with wide, disbelieving eyes but Pepper's own face reflected a degree of understanding that almost scared Darcy.

 

“You love him,” whispered Pepper.

 

Darcy turned back to her device and began to attach everything. “Yeah, I do. Kinda hard not to.”

 

“Do you think you can actually stop him?” continued Pepper. Darcy could hear the deviousness in her voice.

 

“Yeah, I do,” replied Darcy firmly. “He's been living with me for the past month, and all he's done is show me kindness and care. The man out there isn't him.”

 

Pepper smiled slightly and stood, pulling Jane with her. “Alright then, Jane and I are going to help you.”

 

“What!” exclaimed Jane. “You want us to help her _save_ him?”

 

Exasperation was clear on Pepper's face. “No, we're going to help her stop him from destroying the city.”

 

“And killing you're boyfriends,” pointed out Darcy with a faint smirk. _Pepper has such a crush. Hopefully Stark grows a pair soon._

 

Pepper looked slightly affronted at the insinuation, but Jane spoke up before any more on the matter could be said. “But we're trapped in here. It isn't like S.H.I.E.L.D is just going to let us walk out the front door.”

 

Darcy shot Jane a 'no shit Sherlock' look before attaching the small explosive to the canister and grabbing one of the shorts she'd prepared to prank Fury with. She could always build more. Then, she held up the canister for both Pepper and Jane to inspect. “That's what this is for.”

 

Jane still looked skeptical. “What is it?”

 

“A smoke bomb,” replied Darcy with a grin. “Complete with remote trigger.”

 

Pepper was surprised to say the least. “And it will work?”

 

Darcy nodded. “Its not exactly rocket science. Besides, this isn't the first time I've built one of these.”

 

“So what's the plan then?” asked Jane with a sigh. “Clearly you have one.”

 

“Blow this thing open, distract S.H.I.E.L.D, hack a door, and bolt,” explained Darcy. “Simple.”

 

One of Jane's eyebrows rose skeptically. “Hack a door? Really, Darcy?”

 

She just snorted. “It isn't like S.H.I.E.L.D uses _that_ complex of a security system. I caught a look at the locking mechanism once when there were some maintenance guys working on one. It's easy to by-pass the system and unlock the door.”

 

“And how do you plan to reach the fight?” countered Pepper.

 

A shrug. “Hot-wire a car I suppose.”

 

Both of Jane's eyebrows shot up. “You've done this before?”

 

“Nope!” replied Darcy with a grin. “I know how car electronics work on paper though; the translation shouldn't be that hard. Besides, I've gotta try at least.”

 

“May I make a suggestion?” requested Pepper. Darcy nodded casually. “I always make sure there is a car for Tony parked outside of the base, should anything happen and his normal car be unreachable. We could just use that.”

 

Darcy nodded slowly, seeming to realize suddenly that Pepper was truly serious about helping her. “You guys are gonna come with me then?”

 

Pepper nodded with a smile. “We may as well. Someone has to ensure you make it to the fight safely.”

 

“This is crazy,” muttered Jane. “We are going to get killed.”

 

Both Darcy and Pepper shot her a confused look. “You don't have to come Jane.”

 

Jane shot them back an equally confused look. “I said we're going to get ourselves killed. I didn't say I was backing out.”

 

The grin that spread across Darcy's face was brighter than either woman had expected. “Thanks, both of you.”  
  


“Of course,” insisted Pepper.

 

“You'd do the same for us,” pointed out Jane, which was completely true. Darcy didn't even _know_ Pepper that well and she would _totally_ break the girl out of S.H.I.E.L.D HQ if the woman needed out.

 

“So where is this smoke bomb going?” continued Jane. “You have to set it off somewhere that will draw attention.”

 

“Erik's lab,” replied Darcy with a smirk. “The man stole something from me and he deserves some sort of mild payback for that. I'll hit him hard later.”

 

Surprise dominated Jane's face, and for a moment the apprehension and shock were gone. “He stole from you?”

 

“Eh, kinda,” was the only response Darcy felt like giving. It was too hard of a situation to explain and they were running out of time. “Do you know the codes for Erik's lab Jane?”

 

She nodded distractedly. “I can't believe he stole from you...”

 

“More like attempted to blackmail,” elaborated Darcy. “I need the code to get in there.”

 

“442964,” rattled off Jane absently.

 

Darcy nodded and whipped out her iPod look alike, pulling up a map of S.H.I.E.L.D. “Alright, I'm gonna plant this puppy. I need you guys to head to this door-” she pointed to a side door that led into an alley cross way at the side of the building- “but stay in the stairwell next to it. I'll meet you guys there once I've planted and detonated the bomb.”

 

Jane looked a little worried. “Nothing is actually going to blow up, right Darcy?”

 

“Nothing except a small part of the canister,” assured Darcy as she tucked the bomb into her bag and slung it over her shoulder. “Head straight to the stairwell and try to act casual. Once you're in the stairwell, try to stay as far out of sight of the cameras as you can and duck under the stairs when you've reached the bottom.”

 

“Got it,” replied Pepper with a grin and Jane actually giggled a little.

 

“You know, this is kind of exciting,” muttered Jane with a grin. “Like being in a spy film.”

 

Darcy grinned. “Now you know the rush of the prank, knowing more than others and realizing that they won't know what's hit them until its all done.”

 

Jane giggled again as Darcy slipped open the door and stuck her head out. The hall outside the door was clear. “Alright, we're ready to go. Remember, stay out of sight once you're in the stairwell!”

 

“Good luck Darcy,” wished Pepper as her and Jane slipped out of the door as well and started casually down the hall.

 

Darcy took off the other way, keeping in mind where the cameras were and activating another little trick she'd installed on the server: a program that would loop a continuous image of an empty hallway on the security cameras so no one could see her. She'd installed it after realizing Fury and Erik needed to be taught the penalty for attempting to manipulate her. One by one she activated and deactivated the loop on each camera she passed. Normally, she'd have no qualms about just looping all the camera's in a hall, but the lock-down meant S.H.I.E.L.D thought the base might be attacked and she didn't want to be responsible for someone getting hurt. It made the normally five minute trip to Erik's office almost seven.

 

Reaching his door at last, she quickly punched in the code after slipping on a pair of gloves while ordering the video camera's inside to loop and slid inside. Everything was a bit messy, but she couldn't say that was a surprise. For a moment she contemplated stealing back her book, if she could find it, but quickly dismissed the idea. She didn't have the time and stealing the book back would be like signing her name. The canister had already been wiped clean, so they couldn't track her through that.

 

Setting up the canister beneath a table in back, she slipped back out and un-looped the interior cameras. Pulling out her iPod, she activated the application that would trigger the spark and thus the explosion before saying a quiet prayer to Loki. _I hope this works._

 

Then, she pushed the button.

 

A small explosion, minor in nature, echoed through the sealed door, followed by the hissing of gas escaping a compressed space. In less than a minute, fire alarms started to ring through the building. Darcy didn't stick around any longer than that. She was out of sight and halfway down the stairwell when she heard the door above her head burst open and the stampede of feet towards the floor where Erik's lab was. She used the loud crash of feet to cover her own, significantly quieter steps. As soon as the men were through the door above her, she set all the cameras from her floor down to loop and nearly ran to the bottom. As she'd requested, Jane and Pepper were waiting beneath the stairs.

 

“Did it work?” asked Pepper excitedly. “We heard a lot of people running around above us!”

 

Darcy grinned and nodded. “Worked like a charm.” She noticed both Pepper and Jane looked far too excited, like two children breaking the rules for the first time. “You two have really never done anything bad before, have you?”

 

“No,” confirmed Jane with a giggle.

 

“Nothing of this nature,” replied Pepper with a grin. “At least, nothing where I was directly involved in the trouble.”

 

That explained it. “We are going out for a mischief night when this is all over.”

 

“Mischief night?” questioned Pepper and Jane.

 

Darcy nodded. “Dani, Loki, and I used to do them on a regular basis. It's a night where you go out with the express intention of causing trouble and playing pranks. Lots of sneaking around and improvisation. We can do a downplayed version of one.”

 

“You're going tell us some of those stories you know,” pointed out Pepper. “It's hard to imagine you as a prankster or Loki as a nice guy.”

 

“Later,” confirmed Darcy. “After we've saved his ass from certain doom.”

 

“Right,” agreed Pepper. “How are you going to get into the door without getting caught?”

 

Darcy held up her iPod with a grin. “Trick of the trade. The camera's aren't gonna know we're even there. We'll have to really run once I have the door open though, I can't guarantee an alarm won't go off. I'll try to by-pass any alarms but we need to book it. Understand?” Both women nodded and Darcy quickly changed the loop to cover the hall outside. “Right, lets move.”

 

As soon as they were out the door, Darcy reactivated the stair-well cameras and popped the access hatch off the door. It wasn't hard to do. Reaching in, she grabbed the plug used to program the door and plugged her own little device in. It only took her thirty seconds to by-pass the security system and trick the door into thinking the lock-down had already been lifted.

 

Disconnecting her device, Darcy looked at Pepper and Jane with a nod and pushed the door open. As Darcy predicted, an alarm started to ring almost immediately. However, Jane and Pepper were already out the door with Darcy hot on their heels. She only stopped long enough reactivate the hallway cameras.

 

Pepper led them over a block away, dodging down the alley and onto the street as soon as possible. As she had promised, there was a nondescript gray sedan waiting in a garage not far from the base. They were inside and driving off almost immediately.

 

“So what's the plan now?” asked Jane as she turned in the passenger seat to face Darcy.

 

Darcy was pulling up news reports on her phone about where exactly the fight was. “I'm going to try to reach Loki. If I can get to him, I'm pretty sure I can convince him to stop this.”

 

“Pretty sure!” exclaimed Jane. “Darcy!”

 

“I don't want to make any promises I'm not 100% sure I can keep,” explained Darcy. “This isn't like Loki, which means I should be able to convince him to stop. If something _really_ bad happened to him though, well, even I might not be able to bring him back.”

 

“She has a point Jane,” agreed Pepper, who was driving as fast as she could given the state of the streets in many places. “It's entirely possible Loki is too far gone. But if that were the case, and Loki has really been living with Darcy for the past month, I'd think there would be signs.”

 

“No signs of insanity,” confirmed Darcy. “At least no more than usual. The only unusual thing was that he gave up any argument over who got my bed really fast. But that was a month ago.”

 

Jane and Pepper exchanged glances. “Over who got the bed?”

 

“Yeah.” Her fingers flew across the screen as she examined some information from one news site. “When I told him he was going to stay with me, whither he likes it or not, until he got his own place, we got into an argument over who got the bed. He didn't want to kick me out of it and I wanted him to have it because the couch was too small for him. We just ended up sharing the bed, but he didn't put up a fight about it.”

 

A choking sound came from the front passenger seat. “You shared a _bed_ with him?!?”

 

Pepper smiled a little. “I'm a little surprised he even had the energy to try this.”

 

Darcy almost immediately picked up on Pepper's insinuation and rolled her eyes. “We weren't doing _that_.” She knew it came out as an unhappy grumble, but dammit, it was hard _not_ to be disappointed with that fact. Jane seemed to breath a bit easier with that information

 

Pepper's smile fell. “Really? That's a bit sad.”

 

“I don't see you jumping Stark,” pointed out Darcy. “Loki is my best friend. Besides, he ran last time, so clearly he isn't interested in anything like that.”

 

“He ran?” questioned Pepper. “Or did he unwillingly leave? From what I've read, his father sounds difficult.”

 

Darcy shrugged a little. “He said his family was moving to Scandinavia. Obviously, that wasn't true, so I don't really know why he left.”

 

“Doesn't sound willing either way,” pointed out Pepper.

 

“You didn't see the relief on his face,” mumbled Darcy.

 

Pepper and Jane fell silent for several minutes while Darcy continued to look for information. She found the silence a relief, but knew it wouldn't last. There was an elephant squeezed into the car now, and someone was going to bring it up.

 

Apparently, that job fell to Jane. “Are you sure you want to risk yourself like this Darcy?”

 

She didn't even take a moment to consider her response. “Yes.”

 

“It does sound as if the situation isn't as clear as it could be Darcy...” started Pepper.

 

Darcy cut her off. “Look, Loki loves me on some level. Yeah, he doesn't want to ravish me against a wall but he's saved my ass from trouble several times over the years. Plus he spent a lot of time and effort trying to revive the prankster in me. Hell, he called a Cajun restaurant to check the authenticity of the food before taking me there. The man cares for me, just not in the way you're thinking. He won't hurt me. And even if I get hurt doing this, well, he'd do the same for me. We don't leave people behind. No matter how off their rocker they go.”

 

Pepper chuckled slightly while Jane shot her a disbelieving look. “Darcy, I hate to tell you, but when a guy does stuff like that its because he wants to ravish you against a wall as well as take care of you.”

 

“Generally, they call that love,” added Pepper as the ground shook beneath the car. Ahead, they could see some of the flying monsters that had been attacking earlier along with Iron Man.

 

“Stop the car,” ordered Darcy. “According to the reports, Iron Man is still with the rest of the group. If we're seeing him, Loki and Thor are directly in front of us.”

 

“The street looks destroyed,” commented Jane as she climbed from the car with Darcy and Pepper.

 

Darcy just nodded. “That's why I'm going on foot. You guys should stay here, it's gonna be dangerous and neither of you need to get hurt.” Pausing, she fished out her iPod and iPod look-alike and handed both to Jane. “Keep those safe Jane, I don't want to have to replace either if this goes sideways.”

 

Jane looked at her as if she was crazy. “I'm not staying here Darcy. We came all this way, we're coming with you at least to the edge of the fight.” Pepper nodded in agreement.

 

“Fine,” sighed Darcy. “Just be careful. If I get hurt, that's one thing. I'm the one stupid enough to do this. If you guys get hurt, well, that's a different story and I really don't want to have to explain to either Thor or Stark why either of you are in traction later.”

 

“We'll be safe,” assured Pepper. “Now lets put an end to this.”

 

Darcy nodded and took off towards the edge of the fight, with Pepper and Jane on her heels. However, unlike the other two, she was wearing sneakers and could move faster on the loose dirt and tarmac. Also, she was generally more agile but she'd never breath a word of that to either of the other two. That was a challenge.

 

It was seconds before she was standing at the crest of a crater, once a square in the city. The street lay in explosive pieces everywhere, sidewalk was sticking out of the ground at random angles, and a few pipes looked to have burst at some point because water was clearly leaking into the space from somewhere. A scent hit her nose that said the liquid wasn't water. _Gross_.

 

Her eyes moved over the group gathered in the space, searching for Loki in the chaos. She could see the Captain fighting what looked like a werewolf near by. Literally, she was pretty sure it was a werewolf. Iron Man blasted overhead with a small swarm of bat-winged monsters she recognized from an H. P. Lovecraft story-poem she'd read once with Loki. _Figures he'd steal some of his illusions from famous authors. Gotta give him credit for remembering about them though. And they are pretty scary._ Above, Tony fell downward as one of the creatures struck his armor. _Ouch._ Her eyes continued across the fight as Jane and Pepper finally reached her side.

 

“Darcy, look!” exclaimed Jane, her hand coming to rest on Darcy's shoulder while she pointed towards the middle of the crater.

 

Thor stood there, Mjolnir in hand, squaring off against Loki. For his part, Loki looked calmer than he should with a staff in hand and small smirk on his face. No sign of insanity crossed his features, but Darcy could see something in his eyes. It was the hurt she'd seen before, that fear of rejection and inadequacy that would surface at random. Those emotions were running beneath the surface, just barely visible but so strong.

 

“Loki...” She felt her heart break at the sight of him. This was her friend, her _best_ _friend_ , and she hadn't been able to do save him from this pain. _I can't let him fall._

 

There was no thought behind the actions that followed. Without so much as a backward glance, Darcy started down the incline leading into the crater, Loki's name falling from her lips in a shout. She needed him to stop, needed him to see her and know someone cared for him. That someone was willing to jump in and try to save him.

 

Something caught her foot. Her other one slipped. Then, she was tumbling, rolling, unable to see what was happening or control where she was going. She tried to cover her head, stuck her arm out to stop herself. There was nothing to catch a hand on.

 

A hard object struck her head and the world swam more than it had been before. With a harsh crash, she stopped on the ground, her glasses flying off somewhere and turning the world in a swimming blur of motion that made her sick to look at. Spots flashed in and out of her vision. The last thing she saw before the spots exploded into full-blown blackness was a red, white, and blue blur leaning towards her.


	11. Shocked Avengers and Angry Loki

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is from Tony's POV. There was no good way to write this chapter except to use someone else to convey the events. And Tony, being the snarky joy that he is, filled the role perfectly.

Flying with rockets attached to your feet is not the easiest thing in the world. Tony Stark would testify to this. Especially when careening around through the air like an out of control doll attached to a remote control helicopter. Don't ask how he knows what that looks like.

Another strike to the side of his armor sends him crashing towards the ground. “Shit, shit, shit!”

It took effort, but somehow his legs ended up back beneath him and he was off back into the sky attempting to trace the damn Batman imitators that seemed to be playing a game of bumper cars. In the air. Where the fuck are those little demon-spawn. Should have known Loki would have some trick like this up his sleeve.

Something exploded against the back of his armor, arching his body strangely and momentarily shorting out his boots. Crap! He was falling again. “Come on, come on, come on, restart dammit!”

Thrust halted his fall as the propulsion system kicked back in, allowing him to finally dodge one of the fucking things. “Where the fuck did Loki get these things anyway? They're like something from a horror movie.”

The creature that missed turned sharply and bolted straight back towards Tony without a pause, extending dagger-like claws straight towards the man's chest. Then it froze in mid-air without any warning, still posed to strike. For several seconds, Tony did not move. When the creature remained frozen, he took the moment glance around.

Every other creature they had been battling was froze in place, as if time itself had stopped. His fellow Avengers were backing away from their own opponents, weary as he was. The exception was Thor, who was looking at Loki with caution. Thor's mouth was moving, so he was likely talking, but Loki showed no sign of responding. His eyes were locked on something behind Thor. Tony spun to follow Loki's line of sight.

“God fucking dammit!”

Jane and Pepper were climbing down the lip of the crater the remainder of the Avenges were currently standing in, heading straight for Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain American. A brown-haired woman was cradled in Steve's arms, clearly unconscious. It didn't take more than a moment for Tony to realize it was Darcy the Captain was so carefully guarding. Tony was on the ground in 10 seconds.

“What are you doing?” Loki's voice caused everyone to freeze, his words slipping slowly through the air. Apparently, Thor's deranged brother had regained his ability to talk. And based on the quiet volume reinforced with a strong edge of absolute fury, he was beyond pissed.

“Brother...” started Thor, but Loki ignored him.

The man's unsettling green eyes remained locked on Steve and Darcy. “Release her. Now.”

Steve's arms tightened around Darcy, his stance changing to one that told everyone he wasn't going to release the girl with ease. Not that Tony really blamed the man. He suspected the good Captain may or may not have a small crush on the quirky girl. He couldn't seem to stop blushing around her after all.

Loki's eyes narrowed, stepping forward slowly. However, Thor stepped in his way. “Brother, leave them be.”

Those words seemed to be a trigger for Loki's temper because suddenly he was shouting at Thor in some language which no one seemed to understand. Except for Thor, who looked beyond shocked at whatever Loki was saying. None the less, he let his brother continue to rant without interruption until Loki said something that Thor apparently took offense to. Suddenly, Thor was shouting too and the two of them were really getting into it.

And just as suddenly, Thor was backing up and Loki was making a threatening gesture that looked really bad for them. Like, epically bad. Apparently, the scrawny brother was severely pissed and done playing.

“Man of Iron, I require your assistance,” called Thor, who was slowly backing away from Loki. Not that Tony blamed him. His brother looked ready to explode. In fact, he looked so angry that his skin was starting to tint blue.

Tony thought that one through for a second, and realized that it wasn't just an illusion. Loki was actually turning blue. Creepy. “What do ya need Thor?”

Thor didn't even turn towards him. “I need you to take Lady Darcy from the Captain please.”

That was a surprise. Tony glanced at Steve, who was gripping Darcy tighter and glaring at Loki. Still, when Tony approached, he willingly handed her over. With Darcy safely into his arms, Tony turned back to Thor who motioned him over.

What the hell is Thor thinking?

None the less, Tony walked towards Thor, noting that Loki's eyes were now locked on him. Namely, the girl in his arms. And the look that Loki was giving to Darcy, well, Tony was pretty sure he knew why Loki had gotten so pissed. His eyes held anger, but it was covering a deep fear and a deeper love. He couldn't say he'd expected that.

Thor stopped his progression when he was about fifteen feet from where Loki stood. With great ease and a few words in the mystery language he and Loki had been using for the past five minutes, Thor carefully took Darcy from Tony and walked the rest of the way to where Loki stood. His brother's eyes continued to track Darcy, his normal green eyes having shifted to an all-encompassing red to go with the deep blue skin. Really, Loki looked like some kind of a demon at this point except for the deep-seeded emotion still reflected in his eyes.

And as Thor stopped before his brother, a new emotion took over Loki's eyes. Desperation. He actually looked desperate to hold her if the way his hands were flexing nervously was any indication. Thor started to speak again, motioning towards Darcy with his head. Loki reached one hand out to gently touch her face, relief covering his features. Then, Thor said something else and opened his arms. 

In a second, Loki had snatched Darcy from his brother's arms and was cradling her as close as he could. Those red eyes traced over every inch of her that he could, before rising to meet Thor's own. Thor just smiled at his brother. Tony could hear Loki whisper something, but couldn't tell what it was. Then, he was gone with Darcy and the monsters everyone had been fighting so hard.

Steve was running straight at Thor in less than a minute, with Jane and Pepper following close behind while the others began to gather together. “What were you thinking! You just handed her to a deranged psychopath!”

“She will not be harmed,” insisted Thor calmly. “I would not have given her to my brother if I feared he would harm her.”

“You can't know that!” shouted back Steve. “He tried to destroy the city!”

“Hey now, calm down-” started Tony, but Thor cut him off.

“My brother threatened to destroy the city if we did not give her back,” growled Thor. “I have never seen my brother look so desperate or terrified. His words were not a bluff.”

Steve's face was slowly turning red. “So we just give in now when someone makes a threat? Good to know how Asgardian's deal with terrorists!”

Thor looked ready to explode, prompting Tony to step between them. “Okay then! Things are getting a little heated here people!”

“I would think this is a matter worth arguing over!” snapped Steve. Whoa, that was a new one. Steve never got this pissed about anything.

Taking a deep breath, Tony continued. “Look, for whatever it's worth, I agree with Thor on this one. Loki isn't gonna hurt her. If anything, the man loves her.”

“Agreed,” stated Pepper firmly.

“Darcy basically said he did,” added Jane. “She said its platonic though.”

Tony snorted. “Right, and I'm gonna paint my suit pink.”

“What did he say to you Thor?” asked Natasha curiously. Apparently, she'd decided it was safe to actually join the conversation. Steve still looked like he wanted to murder Thor, but he wasn't doing the weird growling thing he'd been doing before.

Thor sighed, glancing up at the sky. “He accused us of kidnapping Darcy and using her as a hostage against him, called us cowards, and threatened to destroy the city if we didn't return her to him.”

“That's actually kinda sweet,” commented Jane.

Pepper nodded. “Yeah, how many guys would threaten to destroy a city in order to save someone they love?”

“I doubt he loves her,” sniffed Steve. “Probably some sick game he's playing.”

Pepper and Jane exchanged glances before rolling their eyes and refocusing on Thor.

“So is that what he said that pissed you off?” asked Clint as he appeared out of no-where to lean against a broken wall.

Thor nodded. “I do not enjoy being called a coward or having it implied that I blindly take orders. Especially orders that would involve using an innocent as a hostage.” His eyes softened slightly at he looked over at Jane. “Though I can not blame my brother. If I were to see the same scene in reverse and with Jane in the place of Lady Darcy, I am certain my own reaction would be the same.”

Jane blushed a little, though her smile was happy.

“I can see how that might cause someone to loose their cool,” agreed Tony with a smirk. “That isn't all Loki said though. It was too long winded of a statement for only that. What else did he have to say?”

A smirk crossed Thor's face. “Well, he referred to Fury as a 12 year old girl in a pink tutu...”


	12. Explanations and Accords

The first thing Darcy became aware of as her mind slid towards consciousness was a pounding headache. Like, marching band practicing off-tune in her head bad. Sitting in the center of the percussion section of a live orchestra bad. The pounding made her want to roll over and sink back into unconsciousness.

She must have made a noise of some kind, because suddenly cool fingers were brushing over her forehead and Loki's voice was whispering in her ear. “Relax Darcy.”

Soothing warmth spread across her forehead and along the top of her skull, easing away the headache which had plagued her. With the pain gone, she dared to open her eyes. And might have screamed if Loki's face weren't so recognizable to her, no matter what the color.

Loki was blue. Really, really blue. And his eyes were really, really red. Ridges and marks rose up along his skin, flowing across his forehead and down his cheeks in patterns she found mesmerizing. She wondered briefly if he realized his normal skin was gone.

“You're blue, just an FYI,” pointed out Darcy. “It looks good on you.”

The choking sound Loki made brought a smile to Darcy's face, even as she reached up and ruffled his still-black hair with a giggle. His face revealed his unease, so Darcy pulled him down into a hug, planting a kiss on his temple. “Thank you for getting rid of my headache.”

“Concussion,” corrected Loki, his voice a little strained as he faced the fact that he hadn't actually realized he was blue and that his best friend didn't seem to care. “It was a concussion which I cured.”

Darcy just shrugged and released him. “Eh, headaches are a symptom of concussions, so I count curing my concussion as getting rid of my headache.”

“Good to know,” muttered Loki with a sigh. His arms wrapped around her shoulders and then he was holding her tightly against his body. “By Odin, what were you thinking wondering into the middle of that fight Darcy?”

Her smile was soft as she gripped him back, the relief of knowing he was alright overshadowing all   
else. “Friends don't let friends get their asses kicked by anyone. Even if their friend went crazy and tried to take over the world.”

Loki felt his breath catch. “You came after me to try to protect me?”

“To save you,” corrected Darcy. “Even if it was from yourself.” She leaned back and pressed her forehead against Loki's, one of her hands wrapping around behind his neck. “You're my best friend Loki. I love you now, loved you before, and will always love and accept you.”

“You have no ability to promise that,” whispered Loki, even as he closed his eyes against the press of emotion. “There are things you do not know Darcy.”

Darcy chuckled lightly. “You've said that before, but nothing you've ever told me has scared me. Even when you're drunk off your ass on vodka.”

Apparently, Loki could pale in his blue form. He kinda turned the color of deep ice with sunlight shining through the other side. “I- I told you stories?”

“After you finished ranting about how your family didn't appreciate you, ever, you told me how you got the title God of Mischief,” confirmed Darcy. “Among other things. Any way you can do that goblet of snakes trick on Tony one night? That would be hilarious. No, better, do it on Coulson. Wait, does Coulson drink?”

Loki was just staring at her like she'd lost her marbles, not that he didn't give her that look at least once a month. Better than multiple times a week, like it had been before. She was pretty sure her record for making Loki give her his 'are you mad' look was 32 times in one week. Digressing.

“Loki? You okay?” asked Darcy gently. “You know you'll catch flies if you leave your mouth open.”

One of her hands came up to stroke his cheek, an action that seemed to draw him back. “I cannot believe I told you such things. Does this mean-”

“-I've known who you were all along?” finished Darcy with a soft smile. One of her hands ran through his hair. “Pretty much. Gotta admit though, seeing you try to destroy part of a city was unexpected. And a little intimidating. Really awesome though. We have to pull some pranks with that magic of yours. I want to see what you can do without restriction.”

He was still looking at her like she was crazy. “Darcy, I tried to destroy a city. You could have been killed in that fight!”

“And it would have been my fault for going out there,” she pointed out, dropping her hand. Stubborn man. “Loki, look, I've said it before and I'll say it again. Nothing you do can scare me away. You're my best friend and the fact that you're here, now, in my apartment rather than running around out in the city causing mass destruction and panic, indicates your priorities.”

For the first time since she awoke, a hint of mischief leaked into Loki's smirk. “How do you know I have not already destroyed the city?”

“Simple,” whispered Darcy. “I heard you tell Thor you'd destroy it unless he gave me to you just before I passed completely out. And because I'm here, its probably a safe guess that everything outside is still standing.”

The smirk on Loki's face slipped to a regular smile. “Cheater.”

“Hardly,” murmured Darcy with a sigh.“Gotta say though, I'm having a hard time accepting that Thor's your brother. I always assumed any brother of yours would show at least some sign of intelligence.” She shrugged slightly. “Oh well, at least now I don't feel bad about tasing his ass when we first met.”

Loki's mouth fell open slightly as he stared at her like she'd grown another head. “You tasered my brother?”

“Yes I did,” confirmed Darcy will all the pride of a champion.

She could see his confusion. “Did it affect him?”

Darcy's grin was blinding. “Fell like a sack of bricks.”

Loki couldn't help it; he started laughing manically. “How wonderful. I cannot believe you tasered my brother.”

“Believe it,” murmured Darcy. “I'd do it again too, if given the chance. He deserves it for everything he's done to you.”

The heavy breath Loki released worried her a little. She knew that sound. “Darcy, I may have exaggerated the degree to which Thor teased me. Besides, it is Asgardian tradition and he really was only attempting to make me stronger.”

The look Darcy gave him back spoke clearly of her disbelief. “He harassed you Loki. Teased and provoked you into fights. Brother's shouldn't do that. And a few times saving, defending, or helping you doesn't make up for the times when he was the source of your torment.”

Silently, Loki lay down beside Darcy on what she now realized was the bed they usually shared. “Maybe, but striking against him and proving myself to Father is not worth your life. Nothing will ever be worth giving you up for. You see something no one else sees, some aspect of who I am that is attractive to you. You have always accepted me without a second thought. You befriended me because of who I am as a person, and not out of an interest in personal gain. That alone is worth more than any revenge I could seek against my father or brother.” He paused, a smirk tugging at his lips again. “At least for now.”

His end-tag made her smile widely. However, a frown quickly replaced the smile. “You aren't going to stop playing tricks right?”

“Hardly,” scoffed Loki. “We still need to fully awaken your inner trickster again.”

“And break Jane and Pepper out of their shells,” muttered Darcy. “I swear, I will drag them out on a prank night. You should have seen how excited they were when we broke out of S.H.I.E.L.D. It just confirmed that neither one has ever really lived.”

“You will have to rectify that,” agreed Loki with a smile as he pulled Darcy's head down to his shoulder, cuddling her close as he closed his eyes. “Later though. Tonight, let us sleep.”

“Sounds good,” whispered Darcy as she curled around him. “I'm glad you're back Loki.”

Loki's arm tightened a little around her waist. “And I am glad that you are well, Darcy.”

 

Every member of the Avengers was currently seated at the giant conference table, with Fury pacing back and forth, well, furiously. “I don't believe this! Thor, you had better hope she's actually alright...”

“She is,” assured Jane gently. “I called her this morning and she said everything was fine. Apparently the fall gave her a bit of a concussion and, well Loki healed her, she's still groggy. I told her to sleep in and take the day off.”

“We still don't know what his end-game is,” pointed out Coulson irritably. “The damage from yesterday's battle was just magically repaired this morning. Why?”

“My brother is taking responsibility for his mess,” replied Thor calmly. “He did this often on Asgard when any of his pranks physically damaged something that was not alive.”

Steve huffed. “So we're just going to assume Darcy is alright and that Loki isn't, I don't know, holding her hostage and forcing her to say she's alright? For all we know he's torturing her!”

“Hardly,” stated a voice firmly. Everyone jumped as Loki suddenly just appeared standing on the conference table, hands clasped behind his back. “She is sleeping soundly right now, something I wish to return to doing once our business is concluded.”

Tony smirked. “We've got business?”

“Yes,” continued Loki. “I find it proper manners to alert you that, for the time being, I have decided against invading Midgard or destroying anyone or anything. Perhaps I may even be swayed to assist in its protection.”

The smirk on Tony's face grew. “Switching sides? Dude, what did Darcy do to you?”

Loki's eyes narrowed slightly. “She has done nothing to me. I simply find the cost for my success to be too high.” His eyes shifted around the table, examining every individual there. None of them looked particularly comfortable with his presence. “Now, I believe that concludes our business. If you wish for me to sign a piece of paper or undergo some other form of ceremony to officiate my statement, I may be reached at Darcy's home.”

With that, he disappeared as quickly as he had appeared, leaving the room full of Avengers silent.

Thor was the first to recover, less surprised by the chaos than the others. “It seems Lady Darcy was capable of convincing my brother to forestall his destructive agenda. I must say, it is a surprise as no female has ever so easily bent my brother to their will.”

“Its the boobs,” insisted Tony. “I'm pretty sure her boobs have magic powers.”

Pepper looked peeved, Steve had turned red (and his mind may or may not have been flooded with inappropriate images), and Thor just looked confused. It took Tony almost an hour to explain what he'd meant to Thor. It was one of the longest hours of his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a lot more to this series, but I'm posting it later. Going to bed now.

**Author's Note:**

> So can everyone guess who the boy in the photos is? If not, the answer is in the next chapter.


End file.
